Mechanochemical Synthesis and Characterization of GaN Nanocrystals

A solid-state displacement reaction of Ga^sub 2^O^sub 3^ with Mg^sub 3^N^sub 2^ has been used to synthesize GaN nanocrystals by mechanochemical processing. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) measurements indicated that the nanocrystals had a hexagonal structure and sizes ranging from 4 to 20nm. Optical absorption and transmission measurement showed the bandgap of the nanocrystals was consistent with that of bulk GaN samples (3.43eV). This study demonstrates that mechanochemical processing has significant potential for the synthesis of GaN nanocrystals in a simple and efficient way.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]