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Title: Optical and Magneto-Optical Properties of Donor-Bound Excitons in Vacancy-Engineered Colloidal Nanocrystals

Journal Article · · Nano Letters

Controlled insertion of electronic states within the band gap of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) is a powerful tool for tuning their physical properties. One compelling example is II–VI NCs incorporating heterovalent coinage metals in which hole capture produces acceptor-bound excitons. To date, the opposite donor-bound exciton scheme has not been realized because of the unavailability of suitable donor dopants. Here, we produce a model system for donor-bound excitons in CdSeS NCs engineered with sulfur vacancies (VS) that introduce a donor state below the conduction band (CB), resulting in long-lived intragap luminescence. VS-localized electrons are almost unaffected by trapping, and suppression of thermal quenching boosts the emission efficiency to 85%. Magneto-optical measurements indicate that the VS are not magnetically coupled to the NC bands and that the polarization properties are determined by the spin of the valence-band photohole, whose spin flip is massively slowed down due to suppressed exchange interaction with the donor-localized electron.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1833263
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-21-24222
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Vol. 21, Issue 14; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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