ABSTRACT
As a type of nanomaterialswith quasi-zero dimension, nanoparticles
(NPs) have become one of the most important areas in nanoscience
and nanotechnology. On the one hand, NPs have found a vast range
of applications because of a series of physical and chemical effects
related to reduced dimension. On the other hand, they have been
used to assemble various high-level nanostructures and nanode-
vices; typical examples are highly ordered superlattice andNP-based
light emitting diode. Among various types of NPs, semiconductor
NPs have occupied the central position since their emergence and
have become increasingly significant because of their roles in nano-
optics, nanoelectronics, and nano-optoelectronics.1−4
Till now, a large number of methods have been developed
to fabricate NPs, such as sol-gel method,5 chemical deposition,67
vapor phase transport,8 and metal-organic chemical vapor depo-
sition (CVD).9 However, both low-temperature solution and high-
temperature vapor methods are not free of disadvantages. For
example, colloidal ZnO nanocrystals, formed by chemical deposition,
tend to aggregate owing to their high surface energy. Conversely, the
stringent requirements for a matching substrate greatly restrict the
adaptability of a high-temperature epitaxial method. Therefore, it
is still a big challenge to directly fabricate semiconductor NPs with
controlled parameters for demands of optics, optoelectronics, and
spintronics.
