Porous semiconductor compound nanoparticles were prepared by using a new technique using electronic excitation. The porous structures were formed in GaSb particles, when vacancies were efficiently introduced by electronic excitation and the particle size was large enough to confine the vacancy clusters. The capture cross-section of the surface layer in particles for the vacancies was smaller than that for the interstitials. Under conditions of supersaturation of vacancies in the particle core, porous structures were produced through the progression of vacancy clusters to void formation.

Formation of Porous GaSb Compound Nanoparticles by Electronic-Excitation-Induced Vacancy Clustering. H.Yasuda, A.Tanaka, K.Matsumoto, N.Nitta, H.Mori: Physical Review Letters, 2008, 100[10], 105506