Low-temperature vibrational properties of tin nanoparticles in porous glass

The heat capacity has been studied in the temperature range 2.2–40 K and in magnetic fields up to 2 T in tin, which has been embedded in nanometer-size pores in glass having diameter ∼7 nm, in bulk tin and in glass with empty pores. Comparison of the properties of tin nanoparticles and bulk tin has been performed. An increase in the coefficient of electronic heat capacity has been found in nanostructured tin as compared with the bulk tin, and also a considerable deviation of the low-temperature lattice heat capacity from the Debye law in the temperature region T > 3 K has been found. The fact that the density of thermal vibrations in nanocrystalline tin for low energies is higher than in bulk tin has been established using low-temperature heat capacity data.