Plasma Nanoscience: from Nano-Solids in Plasmas to Nano-Plasmas in Solids

TL;DR

This paper reviews plasma-specific phenomena in nanoscale solid-state systems, highlighting how plasma processes enable the creation and control of nano-solids with unique properties across various materials and structures.

Contribution

It introduces a unifying framework for understanding plasma-driven self-organization and phenomena in nanoscale solids, covering a broad range of materials and emergent effects.

Findings

Plasma processes enable localized control of energy and matter at nanoscales.

Self-organized nano-solids exhibit superior and unusual properties.

Emergent phenomena arise when plasma is confined to micrometer and nanometer scales.

Abstract

The unique plasma-specific features and physical phenomena in the organization of nanoscale solid-state systems in a broad range of elemental composition, structure, and dimensionality are critically reviewed. These effects lead to the possibility to localize and control energy and matter at nanoscales and to produce self-organized nano-solids with highly unusual and superior properties. A unifying conceptual framework based on the control of production, transport, and self-organization of precursor species is introduced and a variety of plasma-specific non-equilibrium and kinetics-driven phenomena across the many temporal and spatial scales is explained. When the plasma is localized to micrometer and nanometer dimensions, new emergent phenomena arise. The examples range from semiconducting quantum dots and nanowires, chirality control of single-walled carbon nanotubes, ultra-fine manipulation of graphenes, nano-diamond, and organic matter, to nano-plasma effects and nano-plasmas of different states of matter.