Highly Efficient MAPbI3 -Based Quantum Dots Exhibiting Unusual Nonblinking Single Photon Emission at Room Temperature.

Highly emissive semiconductor nanocrystals, or so-called quantum dots (QDs) possess a variety of applications from displays and biology labeling, to quantum communication and modern security. Though ensembles of QDs have already shown very high photoluminescent quantum yields (PLQYs) and have been widely utilized in current optoelectronic products, QDs that exhibit high absorption cross-section, high emission intensity, and, most important, nonblinking behavior at single-dot level have long been desired and not yet realized at room temperature. In this work, infrared-emissive MAPbI3 -based halide perovskite QDs is demonstrated. These QDs not only show a ≈100% PLQY at the ensemble level but also, surprisingly, at the single-dot level, display an extra-large absorption cross-section up to 1.80 × 10-12 cm2 and non-blinking single photon emission with a high single photon purity of 95.3%, a unique property that is extremely rare among all types of quantum emitters operated at room temperature. An in-depth analysis indicates that neither trion formation nor band-edge carrier trapping is observed in MAPbI3 QDs, resulting in the suppression of intensity blinking and lifetime blinking. Fluence-dependent transient absorption measurements reveal that the coexistence of non-blinking behavior and high single photon purity in these perovskite QDs results from a significant repulsive exciton-exciton interaction, which suppresses the formation of biexciton, and thus greatly reduces photocharging. The robustness of these QDs is confirmed by their excellent stability under continuous 1 h electron irradiation in high-resolution transmission electron microscope inspection. It is believed that these results mark an important milestone in realizing nonblinking single photon emission in semiconductor QDs.

Exchange interaction for the triplet superconductor UTe2.

UTe2 is one triplet superconductor that defies conventional relation between ferromagnetism and superconductivity. Our search for a theoretical explanation starts with one spin-triplet state of two electrons and construct a two-particle exchange interaction that favors the formation of Cooper pairs under the configuration. A modified application of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory using parameters derived from ab-initio density functional calculations for electrons and phonons enables us to derive the critical temperature of 1.64 K and an average superconducting gap of 0.25 meV at 0 K. We extend the investigation further into the superconductivity under pressure, showing how Tc and the gap of UTe2 change under compression in ways that are consistent with the results of experiment.

Electronic structures of WS2 armchair nanoribbons doped with transition metals.

Armchair WS2 nanoribbons are semiconductors with band gaps close to 0.5 eV. If some of the W atoms in the ribbon are replaced by transition metals, the impurity states can tremendously affect the overall electronic structure of the doped ribbon. By using first-principles calculations based on density functional theory, we investigated substitutional doping of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co at various positions on WS2 ribbons of different widths. We found that Fe-doped ribbons can have two-channel conduction in the middle segment of the ribbon and at the edges, carrying opposite spins separately. Many Co-doped ribbons are transformed into spin filters that exhibit 100% spin-polarized conduction. These results will be useful for spintronics and nanoelectronic circuit design.

Distinctive Signatures of the Spin- and Momentum-Forbidden Dark Exciton States in the Photoluminescence of Strained WSe2 Monolayers under Thermalization.

With both spin and valley degrees of freedom, the low-lying excitonic spectra of photoexcited transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers (TMDC-MLs) are featured by rich fine structures, comprising the intravalley bright exciton states as well as various intra- and intervalley dark ones. The latter states can be classified as those of the spin- and momentum-forbidden dark excitons according to the violated optical selection rules. Because of their optical invisibility, these two types of the dark states are in principle hardly observed and even distinguished in conventional spectroscopies although their impacts on the optical and dynamical properties of TMDC-MLs have been well noticed. In this Letter, we present a theoretical and computational investigation of the exciton fine structures and the temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectra of strained tungsten diselenide monolayers (WSe2-MLs) where the intravalley spin-forbidden dark exciton lies in the lowest exciton states and other momentum-forbidden states are in the higher energies that are tunable by external stress. The numerical computations are carried out by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for an exciton in a WSe2-ML under the stress-control in the tight-binding scheme established from the first principle computation in the density functional theory. According to the numerical computation and supportive model analysis, we reveal the distinctive signatures of the spin- and momentum-forbidden exciton states of strained WSe2-MLs in the temperature-dependent photoluminescences and present the guiding principle to infer the relative energetic locations of the two types of dark excitons.

Armchair MoS2 nanoribbons turned into half metals through deposition of transition-metal and Si atomic chains.

MoS2 nanoribbons with armchair-terminated edges are semiconductors suitable for the tuning of electronic and magnetic properties. Our first-principles density function calculations reveal that a variety of transition-metal atomic chains deposited on some of the ribbons is able to transform the semiconductors into half metals, allowing transport of 100% spin-polarized currents. Furthermore, we found that a Si atomic chain is equally capable of achieving half metallicity when adsorbed on the same nanoribbon. These results should be useful for spintronic application.

Geometric and electronic properties of edge-decorated graphene nanoribbons.

Edge-decorated graphene nanoribbons are investigated with the density functional theory; they reveal three stable geometric structures. The first type is a tubular structure formed by the covalent bonds of decorating boron or nitrogen atoms. The second one consists of curved nanoribbons created by the dipole-dipole interactions between two edges when decorated with Be, Mg, or Al atoms. The final structure is a flat nanoribbon produced due to the repulsive force between two edges; most decorated structures belong to this type. Various decorating atoms, different curvature angles, and the zigzag edge structure are reflected in the electronic properties, magnetic properties, and bonding configurations. Most of the resulting structures are conductors with relatively high free carrier densities, whereas a few are semiconductors due to the zigzag-edge-induced anti-ferromagnetism.

Structural and electronic properties of graphene nanotube-nanoribbon hybrids.

The structural and electronic properties of a hybrid of an armchair graphene nanotube and a zigzag graphene nanoribbon are investigated by first-principles spin-polarized calculations. These properties strongly depend either on the nanotube location or on the spin orientation. The interlayer spacing, the transverse distance from the center of the ribbon and the stacking configuration affect the electronic structures. The antiferromagnetic configuration has a lower total energy than the ferromagnetic one. The interlayer atomic interactions between the two subsystems would change the low energy dispersions, open subband spacings, and induce more band-edge states. Moreover, such interactions create an energy gap and break the spin degeneracy in the antiferromagnetic configuration. The band-edge-state energies are sensitive to the nanotube location.

Optical absorption spectra in finite double-walled carbon nanotubes.

The tight-binding model and the modified gradient approximation are, respectively, used to calculate the electronic states and optical properties of finite double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs). The optical absorption spectra allow us to decompose the total DWCNT spectral function into the contributions from the inner and outer walls. Intertube interactions can cause drastic changes in the symmetry of the electronic states, the Fermi level, the energy spacing, and the state degeneracy. Such effects are directly reflected in the joint density of states and optical absorption spectra. Thus, the first absorption peaks of the energy degeneracy (nondegeneracy) of two finite single-walled carbon nanotubes would be separated into three or four peaks in the shorter DWCNTs. For finite armchair DWCNTs, the number of the first group peaks decreases as the length increases. These results demonstrate a competition between the tube length, the intertube interactions, and the geometric structures. For finite zigzag DWCNTs however, the number of the first group peaks remains constant as the length increases. This phenomenon can be attributed to the states exclusively localized at the outermost zigzag positions. The energies of the peaks make a red-shift as the tube length increases. For sufficiently long DWCNTs absorption peak energies are almost independent of length.