Thermal Excitation Control over Photon Emission Rate of CdSe Nanocrystals

Journal Article · Fri Mar 22 04:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b04847· OSTI ID:1531175

Diroll, Benjamin T. ^[1]; Schaller, Richard D. ^[2]

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1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials
2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Center for Nanoscale Materials; Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Chemistry

Temperature-dependent photoluminescence lifetimes of electron-hole pairs (excitons) in CdSe nanocrystals are governed by the energetic ordering and spacing of slowly emitting, spin-forbidden "dark" exciton states and rapidly emitting "bright" states. Here, infrared pulses that are resonant with hydrocarbon surface ligand vibrational transitions are shown to offer a route to manipulate the instantaneous emission rate of CdSe nanocrystals at cryogenic temperature. Transient heating of the inorganic nanocrystal core is achieved via resonant excitation of ligand vibrations, followed by heat flow to the nanocrystal lattice. Heating of the nanocrystal core is demonstrated using transient absorption spectroscopy, which shows a time-dependent red-shift of the quantum dot electronic absorption resonances, consistent with heating. Transient heating of the nanocrystal above the bath temperature increases the instantaneous radiative rate of the nanocrystals via a combination of thermal occupation of bright states as well as phonon-assisted emission. The lifetime of this infrared pumped, fast-emitting sample condition is dictated by particle thermalization, which is multiple orders of magnitude shorter lived than the dark exciton state. In conclusion, this work demonstrates the feasibility of using heat control pulses to manipulate electronic recombination rates of excitons.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1531175
• Journal Information: Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 19; ISSN 1530-6984
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
exciton
heat transfer
infrared
nanocrystal
photoluminescence