Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Many potential applications of semiconductor nanocrystals are hindered by nonradiative Auger recombination wherein the electron-hole (exciton) recombination energy is transferred to a third charge carrier. This process severely limits the lifetime and bandwidth of optical gain, leads to large nonradiative losses in light emitting diodes and photovoltaic cells, and is believed to be responsible for intermittency ('blinking') of emission from single nanocrystals. The development of nanostructures in which Auger recombination is suppressed has been a longstanding goal in colloidal nanocrystal research. Here, we demonstrate that such suppression is possible using so-called 'giant' nanocrystals that consist of a small CdSe core and a thick CdS shell. These nanostructures exhibit a very long biexciton lifetime ({approx}10 ns) that is likely dominated by radiative decay instead of non-radiative Auger recombination. As a result of suppressed Auger recombination, even high-order multiexcitons exhibit high emission efficiencies, which allows us to demonstrate optical amplification with an extraordinarily large bandwidth (>500 me V) and record low excitation thresholds.
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W11180168