Phenomenological description of phonon confinement in semiconductor nanocrystals

The average function (average of sine and Gaussian functions) is used to investigate the vibrational properties of spherical semiconductor nanocrystals within the framework of phenomenological phonon confinement model [Solid State Commun. 39 (1981) 625]. The results for the phonon confinement and Raman intensity peaks are quite in agreement with the microscopic calculations. It is proposed here that the average function should be used as a phonon weighting function for the spherical nanocrystals, if the phonon confinement model [Solid State Commun. 39 (1981) 625] is being used to investigate their vibrational properties. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.