Formation of structured nanophases in halide crystals

When halide crystals KCl and NaCl are slightly doped by PbCl(2), (in orders of 10(-4) mol/mol) the structurally stable nanophases ("quantum dots") are formed via nucleation within the bulks of their matrices. Using lattice modeling we have found in KCl-Pb system natural nucleation pathway from single impurity-vacancy complex to Suzuki phase, not demonstrated in previous analyses; further transition to PbCl(2) is difficult due to high stability of this phase. In the case of NaCl-Pb, no stable "end point" of aggregation was observed and our calculations suggest nucleation may readily proceed to large PbCl(2) clusters when initially formed platelike cluster reaches a certain critical thickness. These results coincide with our experimental data.