(1) Fock Institute of Physics, St. Petersburg State University, Ul’yanovskaya ul. 1, Petrodvorets, St. Petersburg, 198504, Russia;(2) Institute of Silicate Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 199155, Russia
Abstract:
Low-temperature (T = 4.2–77 K) absorption spectra of CuCl and CuBr nanocrystals in photochromic glass matrixes are studied. A fine structure of exciton absorption bands (Z3 band for CuCl and Z12 band for CuBr) is discovered and studied as a function of nanocrystal size. It is suggested that the high-energy part of the absorption band is due to the high-temperature hexagonal β phase being stabilized in very small samples; a transition to the stable cubic phase with increasing nanocrystal size is demonstrated.