• Login
• Admin

Elfurawi, Umaima (2012) Optical and electronic properties of PbS colloidal nanocrystals. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

Preview

PDF (Thesis) - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (8MB) | Preview

Abstract

This thesis describes the optical and electrical properties of colloidal PbS nanocrystals synthesized in aqueous solution and comprising different capping ligands and/or matrices.

Post-synthesis thermal annealing of thiol-capped PbS colloidal quantum dots (QDs) is discussed and shown to provide a novel means of tailoring the morphological and electronic properties of the QDs. Two different regimes are reported: at low annealing temperatures (< 80oC), the annealing provides a simple strategy for controlling and narrowing the QD size distribution and photoluminescence emission. At higher annealing temperatures, the displacement of the thiol-ligands promotes the fusion of nearby quantum dots thus leading to interconnected nanocrystals.

A study of the circularly polarized magneto- photoluminescence of colloidal PbS nanocrystals under the influence of a magnetic field up to 30T is presented. A semiclassical model for the population of polarized excitons is used to account for the measured magnetic field and temperature dependence of the degree of circular polarization of the QD photoluminescence. The g-factor, gX, of the exciton and its dependence on the QD size is reported for the first time. The value of gX increases from 0.1 to 0.3 at low temperature with decreasing the nanocrystal diameter from 9 to 4 nm.

The transport properties of a PbS QDs thin film deposited between two electrodes are investigated. This study reveals a non-linear dependence of the current on the applied bias. At low temperature (T<100 K), the conduction is limited by the charging energy (~20 meV) of the quantum dot. The fabrication of a solid-state device based on porous TiO2 impregnated with PbS QDs is discussed. The photovoltaic response of the device in the visible and near infrared wavelength range is obtained by exploiting the Schottky junction that forms at the interface between the PbS/TiO2 film and a metallic contact.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Patane, A.
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Science > School of Physics and Astronomy
Item ID:	12542
Depositing User:	EP, Services
Date Deposited:	08 Oct 2012 12:22
Last Modified:	15 Dec 2017 10:09
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/12542

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View