Phase transitions and doping in semiconductor nanocrystals

Abstract

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals are a promising technological material because their size-dependent optical and electronic properties can be exploited for a diverse range of applications such as light-emitting diodes, bio-labels, transistors, and solar cells. For many of these applications, electrical current needs to be transported through the devices. However, while their solution processability makes these colloidal nanocrystals attractive candidates for device applications, the bulky surfactants that render these nanocrystals dispersible in common solvents block electrical current. Thus, in order to realize the full potential of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals in the next-generation of solid-state devices, methods must be devised to make conductive films from these nanocrystals. One way to achieve this would be to add minute amounts of foreign impurity atoms (dopants) to increase their conductivity. Electronic doping in nanocrystals is still very much in its infancy with limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern the doping process. This thesis introduces an innovative synthesis of doped nanocrystals and aims at expanding the fundamental understanding of charge transport in these doped nanocrystal films. The list of semiconductor nanocrystals that can be doped is large, and if one combines that with available dopants, an even larger set of materials with interesting properties and applications can be generated. In addition to doping, another promising route to increase conductivity in nanocrystal films is to use nanocrystals with high ionic conductivities. This thesis also examines this possibility by studying new phases of mixed ionic and electronic conductors at the nanoscale. Such a versatile approach may open new pathways for interesting fundamental research, and also lay the foundation for the creation of novel materials with important applications.In addition to their size-dependence, the intentional incorporation of impurities (or doping) allows further control over the electrical and optical properties of nanocrystals. However, while impurity doping in bulk semiconductors is now routine, doping of nanocrystals remains challenging. In particular, evidence for electronic doping, in which additional electrical carriers are introduced into the nanocrystals, has been very limited. Here, we adopt a new approach to electronic doping of nanocrystals. We utilize a partial cation exchange to introduce silver impurities into cadmium selenide (CdSe) and lead selenide (PbSe) nanocrystals. Results indicate that the silver-doped CdSe nanocrystals show a significant increase in fluorescence intensity, as compared to pure CdSe nanocrystals. We also observe a switching from <italic>n</italic>- to <italic>p</italic>-type doping in the silver-doped CdSe nanocrystals with increased silver amounts. Moreover, the silver-doping results in a change in the conductance of both PbSe and CdSe nanocrystals and the magnitude of this change depends on the amount of silver incorporated into the nanocrystals. In the bulk, silver chalcogenides (Ag₂E, E=S, Se, and Te) possess a wide array of intriguing properties, including superionic conductivity. In addition, they undergo a reversible temperature-dependent phase transition which induces significant changes in their electronic and ionic properties. While most of these properties have been examined extensively in bulk, very few studies have been conducted at the nanoscale. We have recently developed a versatile synthesis that yields colloidal silver chalcogenide nanocrystals. Here, we study the size dependence of their phase-transition temperatures. We utilize differential scanning calorimetry and <italic>in-situ</italic> X-ray diffraction analyses to observe the phase transition in nanocrystal assemblies. We observe a significant deviation from the bulk <italic>&alpha;</italic> (low-temperature) to <italic>&beta;</italic> (high-temperature) phase-transition temperature when we reduce their size to a few nanometers. Hence, these nanocrystals provide great potential for devices to utilize the properties of both phases at a significantly lower temperature than that of the corresponding bulk material. Moreover, a wide range of properties of both phases that meet specific requirements can be obtained simply by tuning the crystal size.