Actively manipulating electronic excitations in nanocrystals
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Colloidal nanocrystals made of semiconductor materials resemble fluorescent beads that are only a few nanometres in diameter. Their optical emission properties can be tuned from ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths by suitably choosing the material and adjusting their size and shape. To date, nanocrystals have been exploited in areas ranging from genomic and proteomic bio-assays, cell-staining and high-throughput screening, where they serve as fluorescence markers and more applications have been envisaged in LEDs, lasers, optical switches, photovoltaics, data storage devices, catalysis, drug delivery and other biomedical assays. Compared to self-assembled quantum dots made by molecular beam epitaxy, colloidal nanocrystals can be produced by comparatively simple and inexpensive solution methods, and are freely suspended in a solvent or matrix, while retaining a high optical and electronic stability. The precisely controlled size and shape of nanocrystals, such as in quantum dots, rods or even tetrapods, renders them promising building blocks for nanoscience and nanotechnology. Furthermore, shape control in the synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals offers unprecedented abilities to tune the interaction of solid state quantum structures with the environment, opening up the possibility of performing nanoscale manipulations of the optical and electronic properties. This 'First Grant' proposal aims for key experimental studies on the fundamental properties of colloidal nanocrystals. The overall plan is to develop novel applications based on the active manipulation of the optoelectronic properties of nanocrystals and on self-assembly methods for their alignment in large array device configurations. The ultimate applications range from electric-field nanosensors, single photon tunable sources to optical memory elements and all optical parallel processing.
Organisations
Publications
Becker K
(2007)
Exciton accumulation in pi-conjugated wires encapsulated by light-harvesting macrocycles.
in Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)
Kraus RM
(2007)
Room-temperature exciton storage in elongated semiconductor nanocrystals.
in Physical review letters
Itskos G
(2007)
Efficient dipole-dipole coupling of Mott-Wannier and Frenkel excitons in (Ga,In)N quantum well/polyfluorene semiconductor heterostructures
in Physical Review B
Rohrmoser S
(2007)
Temperature dependence of exciton transfer in hybrid quantum well/nanocrystal heterostructures
in Applied Physics Letters
Lagonigro L
(2008)
Time and spectrally resolved enhanced fluorescence using silver nanoparticle impregnated polycarbonate substrates
in Applied Physics Letters
Belton C
(2008)
New light from hybrid inorganic-organic emitters
in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Chanyawadee S
(2008)
Nonradiative exciton energy transfer in hybrid organic-inorganic heterostructures
in Physical Review B
Lagoudakis P
(2009)
Light harvesting in hybrid epitaxial/colloidal nanostructures
Chanyawadee S
(2009)
Efficient light harvesting in hybrid CdTe nanocrystal/bulk GaAs p-i-n photovoltaic devices
in Applied Physics Letters
Chanyawadee S
(2009)
Photocurrent Enhancement in Hybrid Nanocrystal Quantum-Dot p - i - n Photovoltaic Devices
in Physical Review Letters
Description | We initiated a new field of research that of Hybrid Photonics where we combine organic and inorganic materials for light harvesting and light emitting devices |
Exploitation Route | Used by PV and LED manufacturers |
Sectors | Education,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
URL | http://www.hybrid.soton.ac.uk/ |
Description | The research outcomes have been published in high impact journals, presented at international conferences, and led to an invention (patent) |
First Year Of Impact | 2009 |
Sector | Education,Energy,Other |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |