Raman scattering from surface optical phonon mode in gallium phosphide nanomaterials

The Raman scattering from gallium phosphide (GaP) nanoparticles (~53 nm) and nanosolids has been investigated. By means of Lorentzian fitting of the Raman scattering spectra, a surface optical phonon (SO) peak located between the transverse optical (TO) phonon and longitudinal optical (LO) phonon frequencies became observable. It has been proved by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) that a core-shell heterostructure is characteristic of the structure of GaP nanoparticles. According to electromagnetic theory, the SO frequency of the piezoelectric/semiconductor heterostructural nanomaterials was calculated.