Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Nanomaterials
Fullerenes Carbon nanotubes Buckminsterfullerene Fullerene chemistry Applications In popular culture Timeline Carbon allotropes Nanoparticles Quantum dots Nanostructures Colloidal gold Silver nanoparticles Iron nanoparticles Platinum nanoparticles See also Nanotechnology
v d e
Colloidal quantum dots irradiated with a UV light. Different sized quantum dots emit different color light due to quantum confinement. A quantum dot is a portion of matter (e.g., semiconductor) whose excitons are confined in all three spatial dimensions. Consequently, such materials have electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules.[1][2][3]
They were discovered at the beginning of the 1980s by Alexei Ekimov[4] in a glass matrix and by Louis E. Brus in colloidal solutions. The term "quantum dot" was coined by Mark Reed.[5] Researchers have studied quantum dots in transistors, solar cells, LEDs, and diode lasers. They have also investigated quantum dots as agents for medical imaging and hope to use them as qubits in quantum computing. Stated simply, quantum dots are semiconductors whose electronic characteristics are closely related to the size and shape of the individual crystal. Generally, the smaller the size of the crystal, the larger the band gap, the greater the difference in energy between the highest valence band and the lowest conduction band becomes, therefore more energy is needed to excite the dot, and concurrently, more energy is released when the crystal returns to its resting state. For example, in fluorescent dye applications, this equates to higher frequencies of light emitted after excitation of the dot as the crystal size grows smaller, resulting in a color shift from red to blue in the light emitted. In addition to such tuning, a main advantage with quantum dots is that, because of the high level of control possible over the size of the crystals produced, it is possible to have very precise control over the conductive properties of the material.[6] Quantum dots of different sizes can be assembled into a gradient multi-layer nanofilm.
Contents
[hide]
1 Quantum confinement in semiconductors 2 Production o 2.1 Colloidal synthesis o 2.2 Fabrication o 2.3 Viral assembly o 2.4 Electrochemical assembly o 2.5 Bulk-manufacture o 2.6 Cadmium-free quantum dots 3 Optical properties 4 Applications o 4.1 Computing o 4.2 Biology o 4.3 Photovoltaic devices o 4.4 Light emitting devices o 4.5 Photodetector devices 5 See also 6 References o 6.1 General references 7 External links
3D confined electron wave functions in a quantum dot. Here, rectangular and triangularshaped quantum dots are shown. Energy states in rectangular dots are more s-type and ptype. However, in a triangular dot the wave functions are mixed due to confinement symmetry. Main article: Potential well In a semiconductor crystal lattice, the electrons are squeezed together, since no two nearby electrons can share the exact same energy level according to Pauli exclusion principle, leading to quantum confinement. The energy level can then be modeled using particle in a box, which leads to the conclusion that the energy levels of the quantum dot is dependent on its size. When the size of the quantum dot is smaller than the critical characteristic length called the Exciton Bohr radius, the electrons crowding lead to the splitting of the original energy levels into smaller ones with smaller gaps between each successive level. The Exciton Bohr radius is larger than the Bohr radius due to the effect of dielectric screening and the influence of periodic lattice structure of the crystal. The quantum dots that have radii larger than the Exciton Bohr radius are said to be in the 'weak confinement regime' and the ones that have radii smaller than the Exciton Bohr radius are said to be in the 'strong confinement regime'. Thus, if the size of the quantum dot is small enough that the quantum confinement effects dominate(typically less than 10 nm), the electronic and optical properties change, and the fluorescent wavelength is determined by the size.
Splitting of energy levels for small quantum dots due to the quantum confinement effect. The horizontal axis is the radius, or the size, of the quantum dots and ab* is the Exciton Bohr radius. The fluorescence of the quantum dots is a result of exciting the valence electron with a certain energy(or wavelength) and the emission of lower energy in the form of photons as the excited electron return to the ground state combining with the hole. The energy of the emitted photon is determined by the size of the quantum dot due to quantum confinement effects. In a simplified model of the excitation, the energy of the emitted photon can be seen as a sum of the band gap energy between occupied level and unoccupied energy level, the confinement energies of the hole and the excited electron, and the bound energy of the exciton(the electron-hole pair):
Band gap energy The band gap can become smaller in the strong confinement regime where the size of the quantum dot is smaller than the Exciton Bohr radius (ab* in the figure) as the energy levels split up.
where ab is the Bohr radius=0.053 nm, m is the mass, is the reduced mass, and r is the size-dependent dielectric constant This results in the increase in the total emission energy(the sum of the energy levels in the smaller band gaps in the strong confinement regime is larger than the energy levels in the band gaps of the original levels in the weak confinement regime) and the emission at various wavelengths; which is precisely what happens in the sun, where the quantum confinement effects are completely dominant and the energy levels split up to the degree that the energy spectrum is almost continuous, thus emitting white light. Confinement energy
The exciton entity can be modeled using the particle in the box. The electron and the hole can be seen as hydrogen in the Bohr model with the hydrogen nucleus replaced by the hole of positive charge and negative electron mass. Then the energy levels of the exciton can be represented as the solution to the particle in a box at the ground level (n = 1) with the mass replaced by the reduced mass. Thus by varying the size of the quantum dot, the confinement energy of the exciton can be controlled. Bound exciton energy There is Coulomb attraction between the negatively charged electron and the positively charged hole. The negative energy involved in the attraction is proportional to Rydbergs energy and inversely proportional to square of the sizedependent dielectric constant[7] of the semiconductor. When the size of the semiconductor crystal is smaller than the Exciton Bohr radius, the Coulomb interaction must be modified to fit the situation. Therefore, the sum of these energies can be represented as:
where:
is the reduced mass a is the radius me is the free electron mass mh is the hole mass r is the size-dependent dielectric constant
Although the above equations were derived using simplifying assumptions, the implications are clear; the energy of the quantum dots are dependent on their size due to the quantum confinement effects, which dominate below the critical size leading to changes in the optical properties. This effect of quantum confinement on the quantum dots have been experimentally verified[8] and is a key feature of many emerging electronic structures.[9][10] Besides confinement in all three dimensions (i.e., a quantum dot), other quantum confined semiconductors include:
Quantum wires, which confine electrons or holes in two spatial dimensions and allow free propagation in the third. Quantum wells, which confine electrons or holes in one dimension and allow free propagation in two dimensions.
[edit] Production
There are several ways to confine excitons in semiconductors, resulting in different methods to produce quantum dots. In general, quantum wires, wells and dots are grown by advanced epitaxial techniques in nanocrystals produced by chemical methods or by ion implantation, or in nanodevices made by state-of-the-art lithographic techniques.[11]
promising for commercial applications. It is acknowledged[citation needed] to be the least toxic of all the different forms of synthesis.
[edit] Fabrication
Self-assembled quantum dots are typically between 5 and 50 nm in size. Quantum dots defined by lithographically patterned gate electrodes, or by etching on twodimensional electron gases in semiconductor heterostructures can have lateral dimensions exceeding 100 nm. Some quantum dots are small regions of one material buried in another with a larger band gap. These can be so-called core-shell structures, e.g., with CdSe in the core and ZnS in the shell or from special forms of silica called ormosil. Quantum dots sometimes occur spontaneously in quantum well structures due to monolayer fluctuations in the well's thickness. Self-assembled quantum dots nucleate spontaneously under certain conditions during molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metallorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), when a material is grown on a substrate to which it is not lattice matched. The resulting strain produces coherently strained islands on top of a two-dimensional wetting layer. This growth mode is known as Stranski Krastanov growth. The islands can be subsequently buried to form the quantum dot. This fabrication method has potential for applications in quantum cryptography (i.e. single photon sources) and quantum computation. The main limitations of this method are the cost of fabrication and the lack of control over positioning of individual dots. Individual quantum dots can be created from two-dimensional electron or hole gases present in remotely doped quantum wells or semiconductor heterostructures called lateral quantum dots. The sample surface is coated with a thin layer of resist. A lateral pattern is then defined in the resist by electron beam lithography. This pattern can then be transferred to the electron or hole gas by etching, or by depositing metal electrodes (lift-off process) that allow the application of external voltages between the electron gas and the electrodes. Such quantum dots are mainly of interest for experiments and applications involving electron or hole transport, i.e., an electrical current. The energy spectrum of a quantum dot can be engineered by controlling the geometrical size, shape, and the strength of the confinement potential. Also, in contrast to atoms, it is relatively easy to connect quantum dots by tunnel barriers to conducting leads, which allows the application of the techniques of tunneling spectroscopy for their investigation.
The quantum dot absorption features correspond to transitions between discrete,threedimensional particle in a box states of the electron and the hole, both confined to the same nanometer-size box.These discrete transitions are reminiscent of atomic spectra and have resulted in quantum dots also being called artificial atoms.[12]
Confinement in quantum dots can also arise from electrostatic potentials (generated by external electrodes, doping, strain, or impurities).
[edit] Bulk-manufacture
Conventional, small-scale quantum dot manufacturing relies on a process called high temperature dual injection which is impractical for most commercial applications that require large quantities of quantum dots. A reproducible method for creating larger quantities of consistent, high-quality quantum dots involves producing nanoparticles from chemical precursors in the presence of a molecular cluster compound under conditions whereby the integrity of the molecular cluster is maintained and acts as a prefabricated seed template. Individual molecules of a cluster compound act as a seed or nucleation point upon which nanoparticle growth can be initiated. In this way, a high temperature nucleation step is not necessary to initiate nanoparticle growth because suitable nucleation sites are already provided in the system by the molecular clusters. A significant advantage of this method is that it is highly scalable. Recently a consortium of U.S. and Dutch companies reported a "milestone" in high volume quantum dot manufacturing by applying the traditional high temperature dual injection method to a flow system.[15] However as of 2011, applications using bulkmanufactured quantum dots are scarcely available.[16]
Cadmium-free quantum dots are also called CFQD. In many regions of the world there is now a restriction or ban on the use of heavy metals in many household goods which means that most cadmium based quantum dots are unusable for consumer-goods applications. For commercial viability, a range of restricted, heavy metal-free quantum dots has been developed showing bright emissions in the visible and near infra-red region of the spectrum and have similar optical properties to those of CdSe quantum dots. Cadmium and other restricted heavy metals used in conventional quantum dots is of a major concern in commercial applications. For Quantum Dots to be commercially viable in many applications they must not contain cadmium or other restricted metal elements.
[17]
A new type of CFQD can be made from rare earth (RE) doped oxide colloidal phosphor nanoparticles.[18] Unlike semiconductor nanoparticles, excitation was due to UV absorption of host material, which is same for different RE doped materials using same host. Multiplexing applications can be thus realized. The emission depends on the type of RE, which enables very large stokes shift and is narrower than CdSe QDs. The synthesis is aqueous based, which eliminated issues of water solubility for biological applications. The oxide surface might be easier for chemical functionalizion more and chemically stable in various environments. Some reports exist concerning the use of such phosphor nanoparticles on biological targeting and imaging.[19]
Fluorescence spectra of CdTe quantum dots of various sizes. Different sized quantum dots emit different color light due to quantum confinement. An immediate optical feature of colloidal quantum dots is their coloration. While the material which makes up a quantum dot defines its intrinsic energy signature, the nanocrystal's quantum confined size is more significant at energies near the band gap. Thus quantum dots of the same material, but with different sizes, can emit light of different colors. The physical reason is the quantum confinement effect.
The larger the dot, the redder (lower energy) its fluorescence spectrum. Conversely, smaller dots emit bluer (higher energy) light. The coloration is directly related to the energy levels of the quantum dot. Quantitatively speaking, the bandgap energy that determines the energy (and hence color) of the fluorescent light is inversely proportional to the size of the quantum dot. Larger quantum dots have more energy levels which are also more closely spaced. This allows the quantum dot to absorb photons containing less energy, i.e., those closer to the red end of the spectrum. Recent articles in nanotechnology and in other journals have begun to suggest that the shape of the quantum dot may be a factor in the coloration as well, but as yet not enough information is available. Furthermore, it was shown [20] that the lifetime of fluorescence is determined by the size of the quantum dot. Larger dots have more closely spaced energy levels in which the electron-hole pair can be trapped. Therefore, electron-hole pairs in larger dots live longer causing larger dots to show a longer lifetime. As with any crystalline semiconductor, a quantum dot's electronic wave functions extend over the crystal lattice. Similar to a molecule, a quantum dot has both a quantized energy spectrum and a quantized density of electronic states near the edge of the band gap. Qdots can be synthesized with larger (thicker) shells (CdSe qdots with CdS shells). The shell thickness has shown direct correlation to the lifetime and emission intensity.
[edit] Applications
Quantum dots are particularly significant for optical applications due to their high extinction co-efficient.[21] In electronic applications they have been proven to operate like a single electron transistor and show the Coulomb blockade effect. Quantum dots have also been suggested as implementations of qubits for quantum information processing. The ability to tune the size of quantum dots is advantageous for many applications. For instance, larger quantum dots have a greater spectrum-shift towards red compared to smaller dots, and exhibit less pronounced quantum properties. Conversely, the smaller particles allow one to take advantage of more subtle quantum effects.
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a wireless device that efficiently produces visible light, through energy transfer from thin layers of quantum wells to crystals above the layers. Being zero dimensional, quantum dots have a sharper density of states than higherdimensional structures. As a result, they have superior transport and optical properties, and are being researched for use in diode lasers, amplifiers, and biological sensors. Quantum dots may be excited within a locally enhanced electromagnetic field produced by gold nanoparticles, which can then be observed from the surface Plasmon resonance in the photoluminescent excitation spectrum of (CdSe)ZnS nanocrystals. High-quality quantum dots are well suited for optical encoding and multiplexing applications due to their broad excitation profiles and narrow/symmetric emission spectra. The new generations of quantum dots have far-reaching potential for the study of intracellular processes at the single-molecule level, high-resolution cellular imaging, long-term in vivo observation of cell trafficking, tumor targeting, and diagnostics.
[edit] Computing
Quantum dot technology is one of the most promising candidates for use in solid-state quantum computation. By applying small voltages to the leads, the flow of electrons through the quantum dot can be controlled and thereby precise measurements of the spin and other properties therein can be made. With several entangled quantum dots, or qubits, plus a way of performing operations, quantum calculations and the computers that would perform them might be possible.
[edit] Biology
In modern biological analysis, various kinds of organic dyes are used. However, with each passing year, more flexibility is being required of these dyes, and the traditional dyes are often unable to meet the expectations.[22] To this end, quantum dots have quickly filled in the role, being found to be superior to traditional organic dyes on several counts, one of the most immediately obvious being brightness (owing to the high extinction coefficient combined with a comparable quantum yield to fluorescent dyes [23]) as well as their stability (allowing much less photobleaching). It has been estimated that quantum dots are 20 times brighter and 100 times more stable than traditional fluorescent reporters.[22] For single-particle tracking, the irregular blinking of quantum dots is a minor drawback. The usage of quantum dots for highly sensitive cellular imaging has seen major advances over the past decade. The improved photostability of quantum dots, for example, allows the acquisition of many consecutive focal-plane images that can be reconstructed into a high-resolution three-dimensional image.[24] Another application that takes advantage of the extraordinary photostability of quantum dot probes is the real-time tracking of molecules and cells over extended periods of time.[25] Antibodies, streptavidin,[26] peptides,[27] nucleic acid aptamers,[28] or small-molecule ligands can be used to target quantum dots to specific proteins on cells. Researchers were able to observe quantum dots in lymph nodes of mice for more than 4 months.[29] Semiconductor quantum dots have also been employed for in vitro imaging of pre-labeled cells. The ability to image single-cell migration in real time is expected to be important to several research areas such as embryogenesis, cancer metastasis, stem-cell therapeutics, and lymphocyte immunology. Scientists have proven that quantum dots are dramatically better than existing methods for delivering a gene-silencing tool, known as siRNA, into cells.[30] First attempts have been made to use quantum dots for tumor targeting under in vivo conditions. There exist two basic targeting schemes: active targeting and passive targeting. In the case of active targeting, quantum dots are functionalized with tumorspecific binding sites to selectively bind to tumor cells. Passive targeting utilizes the enhanced permeation and retention of tumor cells for the delivery of quantum dot probes. Fast-growing tumor cells typically have more permeable membranes than healthy cells, allowing the leakage of small nanoparticles into the cell body. Moreover, tumor cells lack an effective lymphatic drainage system, which leads to subsequent nanoparticleaccumulation. One of the remaining issues with quantum dot probes is their potential in vivo toxicity. For example, CdSe nanocrystals are highly toxic to cultured cells under UV illumination. The energy of UV irradiation is close to that of the covalent chemical bond energy of CdSe nanocrystals. As a result, semiconductor particles can be dissolved, in a process known as photolysis, to release toxic cadmium ions into the culture medium. In the absence of UV irradiation, however, quantum dots with a stable polymer coating have been found to be essentially nontoxic.[29][31] Then again, only little is known about the
excretion process of quantum dots from living organisms.[32] These and other questions must be carefully examined before quantum dot applications in tumor or vascular imaging can be approved for human clinical use. Another potential cutting-edge application of quantum dots is being researched, with quantum dots acting as the inorganic fluorophore for intra-operative detection of tumors using fluorescence spectroscopy.
windows required by organic semiconductors. On the other hand, solution-processed QDPs can be readily integrated with an almost infinite variety of substrates, and also postprocessed atop other integrated circuits. Such colloidal QDPs have potential applications in surveillance, machine vision, industrial inspection, spectroscopy, and fluorescent biomedical imaging.
Fluorescence Nanocrystal solar cell Programmable matter Quantum dot display Quantum dot laser Quantum point contact Quantum well Quantum wire Trojan wave packet
[edit] References
1. ^ L.E. Brus (2007). "Chemistry and Physics of Semiconductor Nanocrystals". Retrieved 2009-07-07. 2. ^ D.J. Norris (1995). "Measurement and Assignment of the SizeDependent Optical Spectrum in Cadmium Selenide (CdSe) Quantum Dots, PhD thesis, MIT". Retrieved 2009-07-07. 3. ^ C.B. Murray, C.R. Kagan, M. G. Bawendi (2000). "Synthesis and Characterization of Monodisperse Nanocrystals and Close-Packed Nanocrystal Assemblies". Annual Review of Materials Research 30 (1): 545610. Bibcode 2000AnRMS..30..545M. doi:10.1146/annurev.matsci.30.1.545. 4. ^ Ekimov, A. I. & Onushchenko, A. A. (1981). "Quantum size effect in three-dimensional microscopic semiconductor crystals". JETP Lett. 34: 345349. Bibcode 1981JETPL..34..345E. 5. ^ Reed MA, Randall JN, Aggarwal RJ, Matyi RJ, Moore TM, Wetsel AE (1988). "Observation of discrete electronic states in a zero-dimensional semiconductor nanostructure". Phys Rev Lett 60 (6): 535537. Bibcode 1988PhRvL..60..535R. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.535. PMID 10038575. (1988).[1] 6. ^ "www.evidenttech.com: How quantum dots work.". 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 7. ^ Brandrup, J.; Immergut, E.H. (1966). Polymer Handbook (2 ed.). Wiley. p. 240-246. 8. ^ Khare, Ankur, Wills, Andrew W., Ammerman, Lauren M., Noris, David J., and Aydil*, Eray S. (2011). "Size control and quantum confinement in Cu2ZnSnS4 nanocrystals". Chem. Commun.: 47. 9. ^ "Greenemeier, L.". Scientific American. 2008.
10. ^ "New York Times Science Watch December 31, 1991". The New York Times. 1991-12-31. 11. ^ C. Delerue, M. Lannoo (2004). Nanostructures: Theory and Modelling. Springer. p. 47. ISBN 3540206949. 12. ^ Silbey,Robert J.; Alberty, Robert A.; Bawendi, Moungi G. (2005). Physical Chemistry, 4th ed.. John Wiley &Sons. p. 835. 13. ^ Lee SW, Mao C, Flynn CE, Belcher AM (2002). "Ordering of quantum dots using genetically engineered viruses". Science 296 (5569): 892. Bibcode 2002Sci...296..892L. doi:10.1126/science.1068054. PMID 11988570. 14. ^ Whaley SR, English DS, Hu EL, Barbara PF, Belcher AM (2000). "Selection of peptides with semiconductor binding specificity for directed nanocrystal assembly". Nature 405 (6787): 665. doi:10.1038/35015043. PMID 10864319. 15. ^ Quantum Materials Corporation and the Access2Flow Consortium (2011). "Quantum materials corp achieves milestone in High Volume Production of Quantum Dots". Retrieved 2011-07-07. 16. ^ The Economist (2011-06-16). "Quantum-dot displays-Dotting the eyes". Retrieved 2011-07-07. 17. ^ "Cadmium-free quantum dots". Retrieved 2009-07-07. 18. ^ "PhosphorDotsTM" http://www.nanomaterialstore.com/nanophosphor.php 19. ^ [E. Beaurepaire & J. Boilot et al, Functionalized Fluorescent Oxide Nanoparticles: Artificial Toxins for Sodium Channel Targeting and Imaging at the Single-Molecule Level Nano Lett., Vol. 4, No. 11, 2004] 20. ^ Van Driel, A. F. (2005). "Frequency-Dependent Spontaneous Emission Rate from CdSe and CdTe Nanocrystals: Influence of Dark States". Physical Review Letters 95 (23): 236804. arXiv:cond-mat/0509565. Bibcode 2005PhRvL..95w6804V. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.236804. PMID 16384329. 21. ^ C. A. Leatherdale, W.-K. Woo, F. V. Mikulec, and M. G. Bawendi - On the Absorption Cross Section of CdSe Nanocrystal Quantum Dots - J. Phys. Chem. B, 2002, 106 (31), pp 76197622 22. ^ a b Walling, M. A.; Novak, Shepard (2009-02). "Quantum Dots for Live Cell and In Vivo Imaging". Int. J. Mol. Sci. 10 (2): 441491. doi:10.3390/ijms10020441. ISSN 1422-0067. PMC 2660663. PMID 19333416. 23. ^ X. Michalet, F. F. Pinaud, L. A. Bentolila, J. M. Tsay, S. Doose, J. J. Li, G. Sundaresan, A. M. Wu, S. S. Gambhir, S. Weiss - Quantum Dots for Live Cells, in Vivo Imaging, and Diagnostics - Science Vol. 307. no. 5709, pp. 538 544 24. ^ Tokumasu, F; Fairhurst, Rm; Ostera, Gr; Brittain, Nj; Hwang, J; Wellems, Te; Dvorak, Ja (Mar 2005). "Band 3 modifications in Plasmodium falciparum-infected AA and CC erythrocytes assayed by autocorrelation analysis using quantum dots." (Free full text). Journal of cell science 118 (Pt 5): 10918. doi:10.1242/jcs.01662. ISSN 0021-9533. PMID 15731014. 25. ^ Dahan, M; Lvi, S; Luccardini, C; Rostaing, P; Riveau, B; Triller, A (Oct 2003). "Diffusion dynamics of glycine receptors revealed by single-quantum
dot tracking.". Science 302 (5644): 4425. Bibcode 2003Sci...302..442D. doi:10.1126/science.1088525. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 14564008. 26. ^ Howarth M, Liu W, Puthenveetil S, Zheng Y, Marshall LF, Schmidt MM, Wittrup KD, Bawendi MG, Ting AY. Nat Methods. 2008 May;5(5):397-9 (2008). "Monovalent, reduced-size quantum dots for imaging receptors on living cells". Nature methods 5 (5): 3979. doi:10.1038/nmeth.1206. PMC 2637151. PMID 18425138. 27. ^ Akerman ME, Chan WC, Laakkonen P, Bhatia SN, Ruoslahti E. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Oct 1;99(20):12617-21 (2002). "Nanocrystal targeting in vivo". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99 (20): 1261721. Bibcode 2002PNAS...9912617A. doi:10.1073/pnas.152463399. PMC 130509. PMID 12235356. 28. ^ Dwarakanath S, Bruno JG, Shastry A, Phillips T, John AA, Kumar A, Stephenson LD. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2004 Dec 17;325(3):739-43 (2004). "Quantum dot-antibody and aptamer conjugates shift fluorescence upon binding bacteria". Biochemical and biophysical research communications 325 (3): 73943. doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2004.10.099. PMID 15541352. 29. ^ a b Ballou, B; Lagerholm, Bc; Ernst, La; Bruchez, Mp; Waggoner, As (Jan 2004). "Noninvasive imaging of quantum dots in mice." (Free full text). Bioconjugate chemistry 15 (1): 7986. doi:10.1021/bc034153y. ISSN 1043-1802. PMID 14733586. 30. ^ "Gene Silencer and Quantum Dots Reduce Protein Production to a Whisper". Newswise. Retrieved June 24, 2008. 31. ^ Pelley JL, Daar AS, Saner MA. Toxicol Sci. 2009 Dec;112(2):276-96 (2009). "State of academic knowledge on toxicity and biological fate of quantum dots". Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology 112 (2): 27696. doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfp188. PMC 2777075. PMID 19684286. 32. ^ Choi HS, Liu W, Misra P, Tanaka E, Zimmer JP, Itty Ipe B, Bawendi MG, Frangioni JV. Nat Biotechnol. 2007 Oct;25(10):1165-70. Epub 2007 Sep 23 (2007). "Renal clearance of quantum dots". Nature biotechnology 25 (10): 1165 70. doi:10.1038/nbt1340. PMC 2702539. PMID 17891134. 33. ^ Service, Rf (Dec 2008). "Materials Research Society fall meeting. Shortfalls in electron production dim hopes for MEG solar cells.". Science 322 (5909): 1784. doi:10.1126/science.322.5909.1784a. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 19095918. 34. ^ a b Nanocharging Solar 35. ^ Exploration, Vanderbilt's Online Research Magazine - Shrinking quantum dots to produce white light 36. ^ Konstantatos, G.; Sargent, E. H. (2009). "Solution-Processed Quantum Dot Photodetectors". Proceedings of the IEEE 97 (10): 16661683. doi:10.1109/JPROC.2009.2025612. 37. ^ Vaillancourt, J.; Lu, X.-J. (2011). "A High Operating Temperature (HOT) Middle Wave Infrared (MWIR) Quantum-Dot Photodetector". Optics and Photonics Letters 4 (2): 15. doi:10.1142/S1793528811000196.
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2008)
Reed MA; Hornbeck, ES; Deshpande, MR; Wheeler, RG; Reed, MA; Bowen, RC; Frensley, WR; Randall, JN et al. (1993). "Quantum Dots" (PDF). Scientific American 268 (1): 118. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0193-118. PMID 9983408. Murray CB, Norris DJ, Bawendi MG (1993). "Synthesis and characterization of nearly monodisperse CdE (E = S, Se, Te) semiconductor nanocrystallites". J Am Chem Soc 115 (19): 870615. doi:10.1021/ja00072a025. Peng ZA, Peng X (2001). "Formation of high-quality CdTe, CdSe, and CdS nanocrystals using CdO as precursor". J Am Chem Soc 123 (1): 1834. doi:10.1021/ja003633m. PMID 11273619. Wang C, Shim M, Guyot-Sionnest P (2001). "Electrochromic nanocrystal quantum dots". Science 291 (5512): 23902. Bibcode 2001Sci...291.2390W. doi:10.1126/science.291.5512.2390. PMID 11264530. Michalet X, Pinaud FF, Bentolila LA, et al. (2005). "Quantum dots for live cells, in vivo imaging, and diagnostics". Science 307 (5709): 53844. Bibcode 2005Sci...307..538M. doi:10.1126/science.1104274. PMC 1201471. PMID 15681376. Shim M, Guyot-Sionnest P (2000). "n-type colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals". Nature 407 (6807): 9813. doi:10.1038/35039577. PMID 11069172. Buhro WE, Colvin VL (2003). "Semiconductor nanocrystals: Shape matters". Nature materials 2 (3): 1389. Bibcode 2003NatMa...2..138B. doi:10.1038/nmat844. PMID 12612665. Bandyopadhyay S, Miller AE (2001). "Electrochemically self-assembled ordered nanostructure arrays: Quantum dots, dashes, and wires". In Nalwa HS. Handbook of Advanced Electronic and Photonic Materials and Devices. 6. San Diego, Calif.: Academic. ISBN 0125137451. Schaller RD, Klimov VI (2004). "High Efficiency Carrier Multiplication in PbSe Nanocrystals: Implications for Solar Energy Conversion". Phys Rev Lett 92 (18): 186601. arXiv:cond-mat/0404368. Bibcode 2004PhRvL..92r6601S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.186601. PMID 15169518. Bowers MJ, McBride JR, Rosenthal SJ (2005). "White-Light Emission from Magic-Sized Cadmium Selenide Nanocrystals". J Am Chem Soc 127 (44): 15378 9. doi:10.1021/ja055470d. PMID 16262395. Thomas Engel. Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy. ISBN 0-8053-3843-8. Pearson Education, 2006. Pages 7576. C. Delerue, M. Lannoo. Nanostructures: Theory and Modelling. ISBN 3540206949. Springer, 2004.
Sizing Curve for CdS Nanocrystals Quantum Dots: Technical Status and Market Prospects Quantum dots that produce white light could be the light bulbs successor Quantum dots device counts single electrons - New Scientist Quantum dot on arxiv.org Quantum Dots Research and Technical Data National Nanotechnologies Laboratories of CNR-INFM [show]
v d e
Emerging technologies
View page ratings Rate this page What's this? Trustworthy Objective Complete Well-written I am highly knowledgeable about this topic (optional) Categories:
Quantum electronics Nanomaterials Semiconductor structures Phosphors and scintillators Emerging technologies Log in / create account Article Discussion Read Edit View history
Azrbaycanca () Dansk Deutsch Espaol Franais Italiano Polski Portugus Romn This page was last modified on 17 December 2011 at 04:56. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization. Contact us Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
Mobile view
SMALLER. . . smaller . . . smaller. In the semiconductor industry, this mantra translates to faster . . . faster . . . faster. The question is, how small can you go? At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the answer may be: as small as quantum dots. Physicist Howard Lee and his team of Laboratory and University of California at Davis researchers have been exploring these entities, which are about a single nanometer (a billionth of a meter) in size and made out of material such as silicon. Lee explains, "Imagine taking a wafer of silicon and cutting it in half again and again and again, until you have a piece containing about a hundred to a thousand atoms. That's the size we're looking at." The small size results in new quantum phenomena that yield some extraordinary bonuses. Material properties change dramatically because quantum effects arise from the confinement of electrons and "holes" in the material (a hole is the absence of an electron; the hole behaves as though it were a positively charged particle). Size changes other material properties such as the electrical and nonlinear optical properties of a material, making them very different from those of the material's bulk form. If a dot is excited, the smaller the dot, the higher
the energy and intensity of its emitted light. Hence, these very small, semiconducting quantum dots are gateways to an enormous array of possible applications and new technologies. "For years," says Lee, "scientists have been trying to make silicon emit light efficiently and in the visible range. This has been one of the holy grails of science." In 1990, researchers from Europe made porous silicon emit red light and attributed its color to quantum confinement arising from the small size. Since then, many other research institutions and commercial companies have taken an interest in quantum dots and have made silicon dots that emit at frequencies higher in the spectrum, in the much-sought-after green and blue ranges. In general, these higher energy emissions tend to be difficult to reproduce and not well understood. "Here at the Laboratory," says Lee, "we have made silicon and germanium quantum dots that emit light throughout the visible spectrum-from the infrared to the ultraviolet. What makes our dots unique is that their luminescence can be tuned to any wavelength over a broad spectral range and be stable under ambient conditions. No one else has done this. We also believe we understand the underlying physics." Smaller Is Beautiful The color of the emitted light depends on the size of the dots: the larger the dot, the redder the light. As the dots shrink in size, the emitted light becomes shorter in wavelength, moving toward the blue. A rainbow of colors can be emitted from a single material simply by changing the dot size. One possible use for this rainbow of colors is in biosensors used to detect agents of biological warfare. "Present-day fluorescence-based biosensors depend on organic dyes to tag the agents. The dyes luminesce to tell you whether any harmful bioagent is present," says Lee. "The problem is, dyes luminesce with a broad spectral width, which limits their effectiveness to a small number of colors. Furthermore, they degrade. Using quantum dots instead of dyes, the whole spectrum is available and there is little degradation over time." "With all these different colors, it's now possible to make light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from quantum dots," says Lee. "We've come up with a process so easy you can almost do it in your garage. We can put these dots in
a polymer and make thin films that are 1,000- to 2,000angstroms thick. This means we can create precisely tuned blue or green LEDs." Another future use for quantum-dot LEDs is to emit white light for uses in laptop computers or as internal lighting for buildings or cars. Lee and his team have discovered they can-by controlling the amount of blue in the emission-control the "flavor" or "tone" of the white light as well. Quantum dots are also possible materials for making ultrafast, all-optical switches and logic gates. "We can make all-optical switches and logic gates that work faster than 15 terabits a second," says Lee. For comparison, the Ethernet generally can handle only 10 megabits per second. Quantum dots provide a remarkable millionfold improvement in speed. Other possible applications are all-optical demultiplexers (for separating various multiplexed signals in an optical fiber), all-optical computing, and encryption. The frantic pace of innovation in semiconductors requires that integrated circuits be made with ever smaller features to carry more data and do it faster (see S&TR, March 1998, Keeping the "More" in Moore's Law, and November 1999, Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography: Imaging the Future). Most semiconductor fabrication processes start with a silicon wafer and etch away unneeded wafer material. Quantum dots, Lee explains, allow a bottom-up approach: "If you only need 100 atoms, then that's what you make. And a single quantum dot can function as a microelectronic unit such as a transistor to form the basis of nanoelectronics." At sizes of 1 to 6 nanometers, billions of dots will fit on the head of a pin. They will have incredibly fast operating speeds-1 picosecond or less-and extremely low power requirements.
Connecting the Dots In a current Laboratory Directed Research and Development project, Lee is developing quantum wires to connect the dots together in a variety of configurations. As Lee notes, "If you use regular or even microscopic connections to link these dots, the size of the connections could destroy any useful quantum effects and defeat the purpose." The quantum wires are molecular tethers made of organic compounds chemically bonded to the surface of the dot. They can be of various lengths-the longest created to date is about 12 angstroms long-and serve multiple functions. They can be electrically or optically active molecular structures. The wires on the dots add up to a nanometer-scale version of the popular kids' toy, the stringy Koosh BallTM. Using these wires and dots, Lee and his team are developing new nanostructures with quantum dots as the building blocks. The team is linking the dots in various one-, two- or three-dimensional configurations-as a molecule, a lattice, or attached to a polymer backbone.
The molecular tethers act like electrical wires to the dots or as a way to control the interaction of connected dots.
Into the Wild, Blue Yonder Quantum-dot LEDs, particularly those that provide the hard-to-reach blue end of the spectrum, appear to be key to opening any number of exciting technological advances in the fields of full-color, flat-panel displays; ultrahigh-density optical memories and data storage; backlighting; and chemical and biological sensing. "We have also explored the use of quantum dots for blue lasers," notes Lee. "In 1999, we demonstrated that lasing may be possible with these quantum dots, opening the door to a new class of blue lasers that have intriguing applications for both the private sector and the missions of the Department of Energy." Ann Parker Key Words: all-optical switch, demultiplexer, light-emitting diode (LED), logic gate, quantum dot, quantum effects, semiconductor. For more information contact Howard Lee (925) 423-5877 (lee19@llnl.gov).
Back to July/August 2000 // Science & Technology Review 2000 // Science & Technology Review // LLNL Homepage
quantum dot
A quantum dot is a particle of matter so small that the addition or removal of an electron changes its properties in some useful way. All atom s are, of course, quantum dots, but multi-molecular combinations can have this characteristic. In biochemistry, quantum dots are called redox groups. In nanotechnology , they are called quantum bits or qubit s. Quantum dots typically have dimensions measured in nanometers, where one nanometer is 10 -9 meter or a millionth of a millimeter. The fields of biology, chemistry, computer science, and electronics are all of interest to researchers in nanotechnology. An example of the overlapping of these disciplines is a hypothetical biochip , which might contain a sophisticated computer and be grown in a manner similar to the way a tree evolves from a seed. In this scenario, the terms redox group and qubit are equally applicable; it is hard to classify such a chip as either animate or inanimate. The quantum dots in a biochip would each account for at least one data bit, and possibly several. In the extreme, the position of a single electron in a quantum dot might attain several states, so that a quantum dot could represent a byte of data. Alternatively, a quantum dot might be used in more than one computational instruction at a time. Other applications of quantum dots include nanomachines , neural networks, and high-density memory or storage media. Home > quantum dot
quantum dot
A nano-scale crystalline structure made from cadmium selenide that absorbs white light and then reemits it a couple of nanoseconds later in a specific color. The quantum dot has been around since the 1980s when scientists were looking into the technology as a way to build nano-scale computing applications where light is used to process information. More recently, however, the technology is being used in medicine. The crystals are one tenmillionth of an inch in size and can be dissolved in water. When illuminated, they act as
molecule-sized LEDs and can be used as probes to track antibodies, viruses, proteins, or DNA within the human body. Previous Term Next Term How is a server different from a desktop? What are storage area networks? Can I use a high-end desktop in place of a server?
How do you know when you need a server? quantum dot Do I need more than one server?
How much memory and disk space will it need? Will I have to replace it in six months? How much will a server cost?