Structural Disorder in Colloidal InAs and CdSe Nanocrystals Observed by X-Ray Absorption Near-Edge Spectroscopy

We report the observation of size dependent structural disorder by x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) in InAs and CdSe nanocrystals 17–80 Å in diameter. XANES of the In and Cd $M_{4,5}$ edges yields features that are sharp for the bulk solid but broaden considerably as the size of the particle decreases. FEFF7 multiple-scattering simulations reproduce the size dependent broadening of the spectra if a bulklike surface reconstruction of a spherical nanocrystal model is included. This illustrates that XANES is sensitive to the structure of the entire nanocrystal including the surface.