One-pot synthesis of sub-10 nm LiNbO<sub>3</sub> nanocrystals exhibiting a tunable optical second harmonic response


Ali, Rana Faryad, Bilton, Matthew ORCID: 0000-0002-0475-2942 and Gates, Byron D (2019) One-pot synthesis of sub-10 nm LiNbO<sub>3</sub> nanocrystals exhibiting a tunable optical second harmonic response. NANOSCALE ADVANCES, 1 (6). pp. 2268-2275.

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Abstract

Nanophotonics, dealing with the properties of light interacting with nanometer scale materials and structures, has emerged as a sought after platform for sensing and imaging applications, and is impacting fields that include advanced information technology, signal processing circuits, and cryptography. Lithium niobate (LiNbO<sub>3</sub>) is a unique photonic material, often referred to as the "silicon of photonics" due to its excellent optical properties. In this article, we introduce a solution-phase method to prepare single-crystalline LiNbO<sub>3</sub> nanoparticles with average diameters of 7 nm. This one-pot approach forms well-dispersed LiNbO<sub>3</sub> nanocrystals without additional organic additives (<i>e.g.</i>, surfactants) to control growth and aggregation of the nanoparticles. Formation of these LiNbO<sub>3</sub> nanocrystals proceeds through a non-aqueous sol-gel reaction, in which lithium hydroxide and niobium hydroxide species were generated <i>in situ</i>. The reaction proceeded through both a condensation and crystallization of these reactants to form the solid nanoparticles. These nanocrystals of LiNbO<sub>3</sub> were active for optical second harmonic generation (SHG) with a tunable response from 400 to 500 nm. These nanoparticles could enable further development of non-linear optical techniques such as SHG microscopy for bioimaging, which requires the dimensions of nanoparticles to be well below 100 nm.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Nanotechnology, Bioengineering
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 07 May 2019 08:21
Last Modified: 15 Mar 2024 13:38
DOI: 10.1039/c8na00171e
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3039519
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