The future of
nanotechnology will depend in part on the physical properties of
solution-grown materials known as nanocrystals, of which the
smallest—quantum
dots—are often known as "artificial atoms." By adjusting the
size, shape, and composition of these crystals, their
electromagnetic, thermodynamic, and photonic properties can be
finely tuned, allowing for the creation of novel devices on a
billionth-of-a-meter scale.
In the field of nanocrystals, the three most-cited papers of the
past decade are all from Science: a 1996 review of
semiconductor clusters, nanocrystals, and quantum dots; a 1998
discussion of semiconductor nanocrystals as fluorescent biological
labels; and a 2000 report on the synthesis of monodisperse
iron-platinum nanoparticles and nanocrystals. Among other highly
cited papers since 1996 are a half-dozen on cadmium selenium
nanocrystals; a report on the organization of nanocrystal molecules
using DNA; and the generation of optical gain in nanocrystals.
The two-year data continues to focus on the details of
nanocrystal synthesis, preparation, characterization, and shape
control. Applications that appear among the most-cited papers
include novel nanocrystal solar cells and the use of magnetic
nanocrystals for cancer diagnosis and magnetic resonance imaging.
Methodology
To construct this database,
papers were extracted based on title-supplied keywords for
Nanocrystals. The keywords used were as follows:
nanocrystals*
The baseline time span for this database
is 1996-December 31, 2006. The resulting database contained 12,846 (10 years)
and 3,563 (2 years) papers; 22,096 authors; 84 countries; 690 journals; and
3,557 institutions.
Rankings
Once the database was in place,
it was used to generate the lists of top 20 papers (two- and ten-year
periods), authors, journals,
institutions, and nations, covering a time span of 1996-December 31,
2006 (sixth bimonthly, an eleven-year period).
The top 20 papers are ranked
according to total cites. Rankings for author, journal, institution,
and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total
papers, and total cites/paper. The paper thresholds and corresponding
percentages used to determine
scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to
total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows:
| Entity: |
Scientists |
Institutions |
Countries |
Journals |
| Thresholds: |
19 |
74 |
23 |
43 |
| Percentage: |
1% |
1% |
50% |
10% |
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