Tailorable, visible light emission from silicon nanocrystals

Crystalline, size-selected Si nanocrystals in the size range 1.8–10 nm grown in inverse micellar cages exhibit highly structured optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) across the visible range of the spectrum. The most intense PL for the smallest nanocrystals produced (∼2 nm) was in the blue (∼365 nm) with a radiative lifetime of ∼1 ns and is attributed to direct recombination at zone center.