Fabrication of silicon carbide nanoparticles using picosecond pulsed laser ablation in acetone with characterizations from TEM and XRD

We fabricated SiC nanoparticles (NPs) using a laser ablation method in acetone with a picosecond pulsed laser and characterized the resulting sizes, shapes, and crystal structures using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). We revealed two formation processes for the SiC NPs. The main process was the formation of spherical NPs with diameters primarily less than 10 nm. The crystal structure was 3C-SiC, which did not depend on a target polytype. Therefore, it is concluded that these NPs are grown from atomic molecules that disassociate from targets in the ablation process. As a result of a Rietbelt analysis of the XRD patterns, we clearly found that almost all NPs were single crystals. In addition, a stacking fault in the crystal was observed in the TEM image, which affects the XRD pattern. The other process was the formation of NPs with diameters from 30 to 80 nm with crystal structures that were the same as the targets. This indicates that these NPs were generated as fragments of the target. Our findings are useful for applications of SiC NPs to selectively control their size, shape, and crystal structure using laser ablation.