UC Berkeley

A model of pulsed laser melting of embedded nanoparticles is introduced. Pulsed laser melting (PLM) is commonly used to achieve a fast quench rate in nanoparticles; this model enables a better understanding of the influence of PLM on the size distribution of nanoparticles, which is crucial for studying or using their size-dependent properties. The model includes laser absorption according to the Mie theory, a full heat transport model, and rate equations for nucleation, growth, coarsening, and melting and freezing of nanoparticles embedded in a transparent matrix. The effects of varying the laser parameters and sample properties are studied, as well as combining PLM and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) processing steps on the same sample. A general theory for achieving narrow size distributions of nanoparticles is presented, and widths as narrow as 12% are achieved using PLM and RTA.