2025/10/18 by Hongjin Du, Du, Hongjin, Ellery J. Hendrix +5
Materials Science · #FOS: Physical sciences #Gold and Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis and Applications #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Nanocluster Synthesis and Applications #Quantum Dots Synthesis And Properties
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.16648
openalex publication_date 2025/10/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Semiconductor magic-size clusters (MSCs) are atomically precise nanoparticles exhibiting unique size-dependent properties, but their ultrasmall dimensions hinder structural characterization, limiting our understanding of their formation and stability. A few MSC structures have been fully resolved, revealing either bulk-like zincblende-type structures or a range of non-bulk-like motifs. Here we use a computational model to investigate the relationship between cluster size and atomic structure in zincblende-forming II-VI and III-V semiconductors. Firstly, we find that all non-bulk-like MSCs in these systems exhibit the same distorted icosahedral motif that is intrinsically chiral. Secondly, we reproduce these MSC geometries in small-cluster self-assembly simulations and discover that their chirality emerges from the geometric frustration and symmetry breaking in arranging tetrahedral bonding environments into an icosahedral topology. Overall, this work reproduces experimentally reported motifs without system-specific parameterization, establishes the structural origin of chirality in MSCs, and provides design principles for predicting new cluster geometries.