Doped semiconductor nanoparticles synthesized in gas-phase plasmas

Crystalline nanoparticles (NPs) of semiconductor materials have been attracting huge research interest due to their potential use in future applications like photovoltaics and bioimaging. The important role that intentional impurity doping plays in semiconductor technology has ignited a great deal of research effort aiming at synthesizing semiconductor NPs doped with foreign impurities and at understanding their physical and chemical properties. In this respect, plasma-grown semiconductor NPs doped in situ during synthesis have been key in studies of doped NPs. This article presents a review of the advances in understanding the properties of doped semiconductor NPs synthesized by means of plasma methods and the role played by these NPs for our current understanding of doped NPs and the general behavior of doping in nanoscale materials.