Synthetic Strategies for Semiconductor Nanocrystals Expressing Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance.

The field of semiconductor plasmonics has grown rapidly since its outset, only roughly six years ago, and now includes many crystalline substances ranging from GeTe to wide-bandgap transition-metal oxides. One byproduct of this proliferation is the sea of differing synthetic methods to realize localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) based on the studied material. Strategies vary widely from material to material, but all have the common goal of introducing extremely high carrier densities to the semiconductor system. This doping results in tunable, size-quantized, and on/off-switchable LSPR modes, which are a complete departure from traditional metal-nanoparticle-based plasmon resonances. This Minireview will provide an overview of the current state of nanocrystal and quantum-dot plasmonics and the physical basis thereof, however its main purpose is to summarize the methods for realizing LSPRs in the various syntheses and systems that have been reported to date.

Electrical Control of near-Field Energy Transfer between Quantum Dots and Two-Dimensional Semiconductors.

We investigate near-field energy transfer between chemically synthesized quantum dots (QDs) and two-dimensional semiconductors. We fabricate devices in which electrostatically gated semiconducting monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is placed atop a homogeneous self-assembled layer of core-shell CdSSe QDs. We demonstrate efficient nonradiative Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) from QDs into MoS2 and prove that modest gate-induced variation in the excitonic absorption of MoS2 leads to large (∼500%) changes in the FRET rate. This in turn allows for up to ∼75% electrical modulation of QD photoluminescence intensity. The hybrid QD/MoS2 devices operate within a small voltage range, allow for continuous modification of the QD photoluminescence intensity, and can be used for selective tuning of QDs emitting in the visible-IR range.

Plasmonic Cu(x)In(y)S2 quantum dots make better photovoltaics than their nonplasmonic counterparts.

A synthetic approach has recently been developed which results in Cu(x)In(y)S2 quantum dots (QDs) possessing localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) modes in the near-infrared (NIR) frequencies.1 In this study, we investigate the potential benefits of near-field plasmonic effects centered upon light absorbing nanoparticles in a photovoltaic system by developing and verifying nonplasmonic counterparts as an experimental control. Simple QD-sensitized solar cells (QD-SSCs) were assembled which show an 11.5% relative increase in incident photon conversion efficiency (IPCE) achieved in the plasmon-enhanced devices. We attribute this increase in IPCE to augmented charge excitation stemming from near-field "antenna" effects in the plasmonic Cu(x)In(y)S2 QD-SSCs. This study represents the first of its kind; direct interrogation of the influence of plasmon-on-semiconductor architectures with respect to excitonic absorption in photovoltaic systems.