A Molecular Orbital Picture for Trap States in Colloidal Cadmium Chalcogenide Nanocrystals
Ivan Infante a, Zeger Hens b, Arjan Houtepen c, Jonathan Owen d
a Vrije University (VU) Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, Amsterdam, Netherlands
b University of Gent, Photonics Research Group, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium,9000, Belgium
c Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, Julianalaan, 136, Delft, Netherlands
d Columbia University, US, Broadway, 3000, New York, United States
Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of September Meeting 2016 (NFM16)
Berlin, Germany, 2016 September 5th - 13th
Organizers: Marin Alexe, Enrique Cánovas, Celso de Mello Donega, Ivan Infante, Thomas Kirchartz, Maksym Kovalenko, Federico Rosei, Lukas Schmidt-Mende, Laurens Siebbeles, Peter Strasser, Teodor K Todorov, Roel van de Krol and Ulrike Woggon
Oral, Ivan Infante, presentation 142
Publication date: 14th June 2016

Controlling the surface of colloidal nanocrystals is paramount to maintain colloidal stability and to tune structural and electronic properties, but also for reducing the presence of trap states that deteriorate their optoelectronic performance. Using density functional theory (DFT) we evaluate the electronic structure of a zinc blende cadmium selenide nanocrystal, (CdSe)55(Cd13Cl26), upon removing 1–5 CdCl2 Z-type fragments from its surface. We find that two coordinated selenium atoms produce mid-gap electronic states capably of capturing photoexcited holes, but that could also behave as electron traps, depending on the position of the Fermi level. Three- and four-coordinated selenium atoms and under-coordinated surface cadmium atoms, on the other hand, produce states within the valence and conduction band, respectively, and contribute to wavefunction delocalization rather than electron trapping. We use a localized molecular orbital picture of the two coordinate selenium center to illustrates the non-bonding Se 4p orbital that is responsible for the mid-gap trap state.



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