Preparation and properties of nanocrystalline semiconductor selenium films

Nanocrystalline selenium, (nc-Se), as a bulk or a thin film, which was never studied yet, is prepared and photoluminescence spectra of it are used to characterize the nc-Se. Some preliminary results on the preparation of sulfur nanocrystalline (nc-S) are also reported. The nanocrystalline selenium (nc-Se) is prepared by the following two methods; One is the sublimation method where selenium source materials sealed in a vacuum ampoule are sublimated slowly to a lower temperature side of the ampoule. The other is the crystallization of the amorphous selenium by annealing the amorphous films. The nanocrystals of selenium, of 42–64 nm in size are prepared by the two methods above. The photoluminescence spectra from nanocrystalline selenium (nc-Se) are observed and discussed.