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Femtosecond ionization and fragmentation of free silicon nanoparticles

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Abstract.

Femtosecond-laser spectroscopy is used to study the photoionization and photofragmentation of large neutral silicon clusters in a beam. Silicon clusters Sin with sizes up to n≈6000, corresponding to nanoparticles with diameters up to 6 nm, are generated in a laser vaporization source. Nanosecond- and femtosecond-laser ionization are employed to characterize the free silicon nanoparticles. Excitation with intense femtosecond-laser pulses leads to prompt formation of doubly and triply charged Sin clusters. Additionally, strong fragmentation of charged clusters occurs by Coulomb explosion, resulting in high released kinetic energies. Multiply charged atoms up to Si4+ with initial kinetic energies in the range of 500 eV are observed for laser intensities of about 1013 W/cm2. Pump–probe spectroscopy yields decay times of the intermediate resonances of the nanoparticles.

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Received: 22 January 2000 / Published online: 7 August 2000

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Bescós, B., Hoch, R., Schmidtke, HJ. et al. Femtosecond ionization and fragmentation of free silicon nanoparticles . Appl Phys B 71, 373–379 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003400000421

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003400000421

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