Unique structure and photoluminescence of Au/CdTe nanostructure materials

Unique nanostructure materials with highly ordered spherical aggregates have been obtained by self-organization of single CdTe nanocrystals using gold nanoparticles as seeds, and a red shift of the photoluminescence peak was observed.

Semiconductor "nano-onions" with multifold alternating CdS/CdSe or CdSe/CdS structure

"Nano-onions" with multifold alternating CdS/CdSe or CdSe/CdS structure have been synthesized via a two-phase approach. The influences of shell on photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields (QYs) and PL lifetimes are investigated and discussed. It is found that the outmost shell plays an important role in the PL QYs and PL lifetimes of the multishells "onion-like" nanocrystals. The PL QYs and PL lifetimes fluctuate regularly with CdSe and CdS shells. The PL QY increases when the nanocrystals have an outmost CdS shell; however, it decreases dramatically with the outmost CdSe shell. The trend of the change of PL lifetimes is consistent with that of the QYs. The crystal structure and composition of the novel nano-onions are characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectra techniques.

Facile synthesis and photoluminescent properties of redispersible CeF3, CeF3 : Tb3+, and CeF3 : Tb3+/LaF3 (core/shell) nanoparticles

CeF3, CeF3:Tb3+, and CeF3:Tb3+/LaF3 (core/shell) nanoparticles were prepared by the polyol method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), UV-vis absorption spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and lifetimes. The results of XRD indicate that the obtained CeF3, CeF3:Tb3+, and CeF3:Tb3+/LaF3 (core/shell) nanoparticles crystallized well at 200 degrees C in diethylene glycol (DEG) with a hexagonal structure. The TEM images illustrate that the CeF3 and CeF3:Tb3+ nanoparticles are spherical with a mean diameter of 7 nm. The growth of the LaF3 shell around the CeF3:Tb3+ core nanoparticles resulted in an increase of the average size (11 nm) of the nanopaticles as well as in a broadening of their size distribution. These nanocrystals can be well-dispersed in ethanol to form clear colloidal solutions. The colloidal solutions of CeF3 and CeF3:Tb3+ show the characteristic emission of Ce3+ 5d-4f (320 nm) and Tb3+ D-5(4)-F-7(J) (J = 6-3, with D-5(4)-F-7(5) green emission at 542 nm as the strongest one) transitions, respectively. The emission intensity and lifetime of the CeF3:Tb3+/LaF3 (core/shell) nanoparticles increased with respect to those of CeF3:Tb3+ core particles.

Well-organized structures of ZnS semiconductor nanocrystals using amphiphilic triblock copolymer aggregates as templates

Ring- and rod-shaped P4VP-b-PS-b-P4VP ( PS, polystyrene; P4VP, poly( 4-vinylpyridine)) triblock copolymer aggregates are used as templates to synthesize ZnS nanocrystals. Herein, PVP serves as both a stabilizing agent and a structure- directing agent. The resulting ZnS nanocrystals could be aligned along the corona of the copolymer aggregates in near-perfect structures through control of both the molar ratio of Zn2+ to P4VP and the reaction time. The diameter of the as-synthesized ZnS layer on the surface of polymer template is approximate 2 - 3 nm. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy images reveal that the ZnS particles are single crystal in a zinc blende structure. This method provides a simple, reproducible route at room temperature to prepare assembled hybrid polymer - semiconductor nanocrystal nanocomposites.

Luminescent CdSe and CdSe/CdS core-shell nanocrystals synthesized via a combination of solvothermal and two-phase thermal routes

A new solvothermal route has been developed for synthesizing the size-controlled CdSe nanocrystals with relatively narrow size distribution, and the photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields (QYs) of the nanocrystals can reach 5-10%. Then the obtained CdSe nanocrystals served as cores to prepare the core/shell CdSe/CdS nanocrystals via a two-phase thermal approach, which exhibited much higher PL QYs (up to 18-40%) than the CdSe core nanocrystals. The nanocrystal samples were characterized by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectra, PL spectra, wide-angle Xray diffraction (WAXD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Evolution of the amount of InAs in wetting layers in an InAs/GaAs quantum-dot system studied by reflectance difference spectroscopy

The wetting layer (WL) in InAs/GaAs quantum-dot systems has been studied by reflectance difference spectroscopy (RDS). Two structures related to the heavy-hole (HH) and light-hole (LH) related transitions in the WL have been observed. On the basis of a calculation model that takes into account the segregation effect and exciton binding energies, the amount of InAs in the WL (t(WL)) and its segregation coefficient ( R) have been determined from the HH and LH transition energies. The evolutions of tWL and R exhibit a close relation to the growth modes. Before the formation of InAs dots, t(WL) increases linearly from similar to 1 to similar to 1.6 monolayer (ML), while R increases almost linearly from similar to 0.8 to similar to 0.85. After the onset of dot formation, t(WL) is saturated at similar to 1.6 ML and R decreases slightly from 0.85 to 0.825. The variation of tWL can be interpreted by using an equilibrium model. Different variations of in-plane optical anisotropy before and after dot formation have been observed.

Optical properties of self-assembled InAs/InAlAs/InP quantum wires with different InAs deposited thickness

We report on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of InAs/InAlAs/InP quantum wires (QWRs) with various InAs deposited thickness. The PL linewidth of the QWRs decreases with increasing InAs deposited thickness due to the different thicknesses of the QWRs and defects in the samples. The defects and lateral composition modulation of the InAlAs layers play an important role in the temperature-dependent PL properties of the samples. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Wavelength tuning in GaAsAlGaAs quantum wells by InAs submonolayer insertion

Wavelength tuning of exciton emissions has been achieved simply by inserting an InAs submonolayer at the centre of GaAs quantum wells during molecular beam epitaxy growth. Photoluminescence measurements show that the emission energy can be effectively tuned from the quantum-well-determined energy down to less than the band gap of GaAs, depending on the well width as well as the InAs layer thickness. Using the effective-mass approximation, the tuning effect can be well predicted theoretically The results reported here may provide an alternative way to tune the wavelength in optoelectronic devices.

Evolution of wetting layers in InAs/GaAs quantum-dot system studied by reflectance difference spectroscopy

The wetting layers (WL) in InAs/GaAs quantum-dot system have been studied by reflectance difference spectroscopy (RDS), in which two structures related to the heavy-hole (HH) and light-hole (LH) transitions in the WL have been observed. The evolution and segregation behaviors of WL during Stranski-Krastanow (SK) growth mode have been studied from the analysis of the WL-related optical transition energies. It has been found that the segregation coefficient of Indium atoms varies linearly with the InAs amount in WL. In addition, the effect of the growth temperature on the critical thickness for InAs island formation has also been studied. The critical thickness defined by the appearance of InAs dots, which is determined by AFM, shows a complex variation with the growth temperature. However, the critical thickness determined by RDS is almost constant in the range of 510-540 degrees C.

Electronic states of InAs verfically-assembled quantum disks in magnetic fields and two-electron quantum-disk qubit

We have studied the single-electron and two-electron vertically-assembled quantum disks in an axial magnetic field using the effective mass approximation. The electron interaction is treated accurately by the direct diagonalization of the Hamiltonian matrix. We calculate the six criergy levels of single-electron quantum disks and the two lowest energy levels of two-electron quantum disks in an axial magnetic field. The change of the magnetic field as an effective potential strongly modifies the electronic structures. leading to splittings and crossings between levels The results demonstrate the switching between the around states with the total spins S = 0 and S = 1. The switching results in a qubit allowed to fabricate by current growth techniques.

Electronic states of InAs/GaAs tyre-shape quantum ring

In the framework of the effective mass theory, this paper calculates the electron energy levels of an InAs/GaAs tyre-shape quantum ring (TSQR) by using the plane wave basis. The results show that the electron energy levels are sensitively dependent on the TSQR's section thickness d, and insensitively dependent on TSQR's section inner radius R-1 and TSQR's inner radius R-2. The model and results provide useful information for the design and fabrication of InAs/GaAs TSQRs.

Voltage tunable two-color InAs/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetector

We report a bias voltage tunable two-color InAs/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetector working under the normal incidence infared irradiation. The two-color detection of our device is realized by combining a photovoltaic and a photoconductive response by bias voltage tuning. The photovoltaic response is attributed to the transition of electron from the ground state to a high continuum state. The photoconductive response arises from the transition of electron from the ground state to the wetting layer state through the barrier via Fowler-Nordheim tunneling evidenced by a broad feature of the photocurrent peak on the high energy side. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.