Abstract

In our present time of integrated circuits and nanostructured materials there is growing interest in the electronic and optical properties of semiconductor clusters¹, bridging the gap between the molecule and the crystallite. Semiconductor clusters in the size range from a few atoms to thousands of atoms arc of great interest from the viewpoint of both fundamental science and applications². Their physical properties (electronic structure, optical spectra, transition probabilities and fragmentation channels) differ significantly from those of the solid state both in bulk and at surface. Due to small sizes of the clusters, the response times of the optical nonlinearities arc expected to be very short, likely on the femtosecond time scale. Here we report on first experiments where femtosecond laser pulses arc used to study the properties of semiconductor clusters.

© 1996 IEEE