Statistical distribution of laser-induced growth of nanoparticles: Effects of laser intensity and medium-nanoparticles interactions

We theoretically investigate the size distribution of nanoaggregates created by a laser-induced monomer generation process, an example of which can be found in J. Phys. Chem. C 2008, 112, 10715. A simple analytic expression for the most probable size distribution of nanoparticles is obtained by considering statistical ensemble of nanoparticles with various sizes. When effects of the surface interaction and the defect degeneracy of the nanoparticle are negligible, the most probable size distribution of nanoparticles is given by the exponentially decaying function of the nanoparticle size. The presence of defect degeneracy drastically changes the size distribution to be like gamma distribution. The electronic surface tension of the nanoparticle and the interaction between the nanoparticle and environment make the size distribution deviate from gamma distribution, which also significantly change the mean and the variance of the size distribution of the nanoparticles