Understanding the optimal process for fabricating coupled nanocrystal solids
Better understanding the science that underpins well-known techniques for developing quantum dots—tiny semiconducting nanocrystals—can help reduce the guesswork of current practices as material scientists use them to make better solar panels and digital displays.
Just billionths of a meter across, quantum dots are routinely prepared in solution and coated or sprayed as an ink to create a thin electrically conducting film that is used to make devices. "But finding the best way to do this has been a matter of trial and error," says material scientist Ahmad R. Kirmani. Now, with colleagues at KAUST and the University of Toronto, Canada, he has revealed why certain well-known techniques can dramatically improve the film's performance.
Quantum dots absorb and emit different wavelengths of light depending on their size. This means they can be tuned to be highly efficient absorbers in solar panels, or to emit different colors for a display, just by making the crystals bigger or smaller.
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