QUANTUM DOTS

Presented by

Abhisek Banerjee
Bishan Mukherjee
Somaditya Indu
Suman Roy
1
 What are Quantum Dots?
 Bohr exciton radius and
quantum Confinement
 Why Quantum Dots?
 Uniqueness of Q Dots
 Various Fabrication Processes
 Properties
 Applications and Uses
 Future Technologies
 Acknowledgements

Contents
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 What are Quantum
Dots??

 A quantum dot is a semiconductor whose excitons are confined in all

three spatial dimensions. As a result, they have properties that are between
those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules.

 A crystal of semiconductor compound (eg. CdSe, PbS) with a diameter on

the order of the compound's Exciton Bohr Radius. Quantum dots are
between 2 and 10 nanometers wide (10 and 50 atoms).

 An electromagnetic radiation emitter with an easily tunable bandgap.

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 Continued
…
 In an unconfined (bulk)
semiconductor, an electron-
hole pair is typically bound
within a characteristic length
called the Bohr exciton radius.
If the electron and hole are
constrained further, then the
semiconductor's properties
change. This effect is a form of
quantum confinement, and it
is a key feature in many
emerging electronic
structures.The Quantum dot is
such an electronic structure
which is based on the principle
of Quantum confinement.

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 Artificial Atoms

Quantum Dots are more closely related to individual

atoms rather than bulk materials because of their
discrete quantized energy levels instead of energy
bands. Therefore they are also known as artificial atoms.

5



What are Quantum Dots?
Bohr exciton radius and
Contents
quantum Confinement
 Why Quantum Dots?
 Uniqueness of Q Dots
 Various Fabrication
Processes
 Properties
 Applications and Uses
 Acknowledgements

6
 Quantum
Confinement
Excitons have an average physical
separation between the electron and
hole, referred to as the Exciton Bohr
Radius this physical distance is
different for each material. In bulk, the
dimensions of the semiconductor
crystal are much larger than the
Exciton Bohr Radius, allowing the
exciton to extend to its natural limit.
However, if the size of a
semiconductor crystal becomes small
enough that it approaches the size of
the material's Exciton Bohr Radius,
then the electron energy levels can no
longer be treated as continuous - they
must be treated as discrete, meaning
that there is a small and finite
separation between energy levels. This
situation of discrete energy levels is
called quantum confinement .

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


What are Quantum Dots?
Bohr exciton radius and
Contents
quantum Confinement
 Why Quantum Dots?
 Uniqueness of Q Dots
 Various Fabrication
Processes
 Properties
 Applications and Uses
 Acknowledgements

8
  Traditional semiconductors
have shortcomings, they
lack versatility.

Why Q Dots?
Their optical and electronic
qualities are costly to
adjust, because their
bandgap cannot be easily
changed. Their emission
frequencies cannot be easily
manipulated by engineering.
Q Dots exist in a quantum
world, where properties are
modulated according to
needs.

Technological
advancements have made it
possible to make
semiconductors with
tunable bandgaps, allowing
for unique optical and
electronic properties and a
broad range of emission
frequencies. 9
 Quantum Dots - A tunable range of
energies

 Because quantum dots' electron energy levels are discrete

rather than continuous, the addition or subtraction of just a
few atoms to the quantum dot has the effect of altering the
boundaries of the bandgap.

 Changing the geometry of the surface of the quantum dot also

changes the bandgap energy, owing again to the small size of
the dot, and the effects of quantum confinement.

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 Size Dependent Control of Bandgap in Quantum Dots

 The bandgap in a quantum dot will always be energetically larger; therefore, we

refer to the radiation from quantum dots to be "blue shifted" reflecting the fact
that electrons must fall a greater distance in terms of energy and thus produce
radiation of a shorter, and therefore "bluer" wavelength.
 The quantum Dot allows us to control its band gap by adjusting its size hence
controlling the output wavelength with extreme precision

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12



What are Quantum Dots?
Bohr exciton radius and
Contents
quantum Confinement
 Why Quantum Dots?
 Uniqueness of Q Dots
 Various Fabrication
Processes
 Properties
 Applications and Uses
 Acknowledgements

13
 Fabrication Of
Quantum Dots

Q Dots can be synthesized in different ways, these are -----

Colloidal Synthesis:Three components precursors, organic

surfactants, and solvents In this form of synthesis precursor
molecules are dissolved in solvent.Solution is then heated at large
temperature to start creating monomers. Once the monomers reach
a high enough supersaturation level, the nanocrystal growth starts
with a nucleation process by rearranging and annealing of atoms.
For this process the temperature control is necessary.
And is done via heat or laser.
Due to strong quantum confinement, the nanocrystals
show size-tunable absorption and luminescence.
By control of the surface chemistry, we produced
photochemically stable nanocrystals

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 Fabrication
Continued…
 Viral Assembly: In 2002 it was found that using genetically
engineered M13 bacteriophage virusesQ Dots can be created. It is
known that viruses can recognize specific semiconductor surfaces
Through the method of selection by combinatorial phage display.
Therefore using this property and controlling the solution ionic
strength and by applying outside magnetic field we can create
nanocrystals in a controlled environment.

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 Fabrication Continued…..

 Electrochemical Assembly: Highly ordered arrays of

quantum dots may also be self-assembled by electrochemical
techniques. A template is created by causing an ionic
reaction at an electrolyte-metal interface which results in
the spontaneous assembly of nanostructures, including
quantum dots, onto the metal which is then used as a mask
for mesa-etching these nanostructures on a chosen
substrate.

 Cadmium-free quantum dots “CFQD”: In many regions of

the world there is now a restriction or ban on the use of
heavy metals in many household goods which means that most
cadmium based quantum dots are unusable for consumer-goods
applications. A range of restricted, heavy metal-free
quantum dots has been developed showing bright emissions in
the visible and near infra-red region of the spectrum and
have similar optical properties to those of CdSe quantum
dots.

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Properties

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 Quantum Dots - Tunable Emission Pattern
An interesting property of quantum dots is that the
peak emission wavelength is independent of the
wavelength of the excitation light, assuming that it is
shorter than the wavelength of the absorption onset.
The bandwidth of the emission spectra, denoted as
the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) stems from
the temperature, natural spectral line width of the
quantum dots, and the size distribution of the
population of quantum dots within a solution or matrix
material.
Spectral emission broadening due to size distribution
is known as inhomogeneous broadening and is the
largest contributor to the FWHM. Narrower size
distributions yield smaller FWHM. For CdSe, a 5% size
distribution corresponds to ~ 30nm FWHM.

Properties
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 Properties
 Quantum Dots - Molecular
Coupling

Colloidally prepared quantum dots are free floating

and can be attached to a variety of molecules via
metal coordinating functional groups. These
groups include but are not limited to thiol, amine,
nitrile,phosphine, phosphine oxide, phosphonic
acid, carboxylicacid or others ligands. This ability
greatly increases the flexibility of quantum dots
with respect to the types of environments in which
they can be applied. By bonding appropriate
molecules to the surface, the quantum dots can be
dispersed or dissolved in nearly any solvent or
incorporated into a variety of inorganic and
organic films. In addition, the surface chemistry
can be used to effectively alter the properties of
the quantum dot, including brightness and
electronic lifetime.
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Properties

Quantum Dots- Tunable

Absorption Pattern
In addition to emissive advantages, quantum dots display
advantages in theirabsorptive properties. In contrast to bulk
semiconductors, which display a rather uniform absorption
spectrum, the absorption spectrum for quantum dots appears as
a series of overlapping peaks that get larger at shorter
wavelengths. Owing once more to the discrete nature of electron
energy levels in quantum dots, each peak corresponds to an
energy transition between discrete electron-hole (exciton)
energy levels. The quantum dots will not absorb light that has a
wavelength longer than that of the first exciton peak, also
referred to as the absorption onset. Like all other optical and
electronic properties, the wavelength of the first exciton peak
(and all subsequent peaks) is a function of the composition and
size of the quantum dot. Smaller quantum dots result in a first
exciton peak at shorter wavelengths.

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Properties
 Optical An immediate optical feature of colloidal
quantum dots is their coloration. While the material
which makes up a quantum dot defines its intrinsic
energy signature, the nanocrystal's quantum
confined size is more significant at energies near the
band gap. Thus quantum dots of the same material,
but with different sizes, can emit light of different
colors. The physical reason is the quantum
confinement effect.

The larger the dot, the redder (lower energy) its

fluorescence spectrum. Conversely, smaller dots
emit bluer (higher energy) light. The coloration is
directly related to the energy levels of the quantum
dot. Quantitatively speaking, the bandgap energy
that determines the energy (and hence color) of the
fluorescent light is inversely proportional to the
square of the size of the quantum dot. Larger
quantum dots have more energy levels which are
also more closely spaced. This allows the quantum
dot to absorb photons containing less energy, i.e.,
those closer to the red end of the spectrum .
Recent Observations have shown that the shape of
the Crystal lattice also might change the colour

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 Properties

 Quantum Dots - Quantum Yield

The percentage of absorbed photons that

result in an emitted photon is called
Quantum Yield (QY). QY is controlled by the
existence of nonradiative transition
of electrons and holes between energy levels-
transitions that produce no
electromagnetic radiation. Nonradiative
recombination largely occurs at the dot's
surface and is therefore greatly influenced by
the surface chemistry.

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 Properties
 Adding Shells to Quantum Dots:
Capping a core quantum dot with a shell (several atomic layers of an inorganic
wide band semiconductor) reduces non-radiative recombination and results in
brighter emission,provided the shell is of a different semiconductor material with a
wider band gap than the Core semiconductor material.
The higher QY of Core-Shell quantum dots comes about due to changes in the
surface chemistry of the core quantum dot. The surface of quantum dots that lack a
shell has both free (unbonded) electrons, in addition to crystal defects. Both of
these characteristics tend to reduce QY by allowing for nonradiative electron
energy transitions at the surface.
The addition of a shell reduces the opportunities
for these nonradiative transitions by giving conduction band electrons an increased
probability of directly relaxing to the valence band.
The shell also neutralizes the effects of
many types of surface defects.

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


What are Quantum Dots?
Bohr exciton radius and
Contents
quantum Confinement
 Why Quantum Dots?
 Uniqueness of Q Dots
 Various Fabrication
Processes
 Properties
 Applications and Uses
 Acknowledgements

24
 Applications and
uses
 Information processing and Computing
Quantum dots have also been implemented as qubits for quantum
information processing.By applying small voltages to the leads, the flow
of electrons through the quantum dot can be controlled and thereby
precise
measurements of the spin and other properties therein can be made.
With
several entangled quantum dots,or qubits, plus a way of performing
operations, quantum calculations and the computers that would
perform
them might be possible.

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 Applications and
uses
 Biology and Medicinal sciences:
Qdots replacing organic dyes,
Usage of quantum dots for highly sensitive cellular imaging,
Extraordinary photostability of quantum dot probes is the real-
time tracking of
molecules and cells over extended periods of time, thus is used
cancer technology

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Applications and uses

 Photovoltaic devices And Nano crystal solar cell

Semiconductor nanoparticles that
exhibit size and compositionally tunable bandgaps. Therefore,
different types and sizes of quantum dots, engineered to
perfectly match and absorb the light of the solar spectrum, can be
brought together into the same cell
Alternative quantum dot based solar cells approaches including,
luminescent concentrator cells, quantum dot dye sensitized solar
cells, multiple exciton generation, and intermediate band solar
cells.

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Applications and uses

 Electronic applications they have been proven

to operate like a single-electron transistor and
show the Coulomb blockade effect
 Security inks
Due to its Colloidal properties Q Dots can be mixed
into inks which incorporate quantum dots, nanoscale
semiconductor particles,which can be tuned to emit
light at specific wavelengths in the visible and
infrared portion of the spectra

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 Applications and
uses

Security Ink with Q Dots emmiting green

light. Combining multiple quantum dots and
other pigments to create unique fluorescent
spectral barcodes that identify any object or document upon illuminated

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Applications and uses

 LED: Several advancements have been made in this field the most

significant one being “QD-WLED” or quantum dot white led

 Laser: Quantum dots are used as active laser medium in its light emitting
region. Due to the tight confinement of charge carriers in quantum dots, they
exhibit an electronic structure similar to atoms. Lasers fabricated from such an
active media exhibit device performance that is closer to gas lasers

 Quantum wire: These dots can be patterned in

the form of wires which acts as good conducting agents and
are lighter in weight.

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 Future Technologies
• Imagine a foldable wide screen TV, or
a truly foldable phone, right in your
pocket

• Furniture coated with a paint, which

can be programmed to show act as a
computer or TV
• Walls that can change colours to suit
the ambience
• Computer memory storage

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Acknowledgements

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