Formation of porous GaSb compound nanoparticles by electronic-excitation-induced vacancy clustering

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