Electronic Doping in Semiconductor Nanocrystals

有意引入杂质(或掺杂剂)可以解决半导体纳米晶体应用所面临的几个重要挑战。特别是，它应该允许获得高导电性的纳米晶体薄膜。最近，PI和合作者提出了一个新的模型，解决了以前在获得掺杂半导体纳米晶方面的问题。在这里，我们将在这一成功的基础上，合成和研究各种掺杂的纳米晶体及其组装。我们的重点将放在可以为粒子贡献额外电子或额外空穴的杂质上。我们建议：(I)使用我们的理论模型来指导我们的掺杂剂的选择，(Ii)开发合适的化学前驱体来合成所需的掺杂纳米晶，(Iii)表征掺杂剂在合成纳米晶中的位置，以及(Iv)走向杂质对纳米晶及其组装行为的影响的统一图景。我们将通过明尼苏达大学和杜伊斯堡-埃森大学之间的独特合作来实现这些目标，这将使我们能够研究通过溶液和气相方法制备的掺杂纳米晶体。

The introduction of intentional impurities (or dopants) can address several important challenges expected for the applications of semiconductor nanocrystals. In particular, it should allow highly conducting films of nanocrystals to be obtained. Recently, the PI and collaborators have presented a new model that resolved previous problems in obtaining doped semiconductor nanocrystals. Here, we will build upon this success to synthesize and study a variety of doped nanocrystals and their assemblies. Our emphasis will be on impurities that can contribute an extra electron or an extra hole to the particles. We propose to: (i) use our theoretical model to guide our selection of dopants, (ii) develop appropriate chemical precursors to synthesize the desired doped nanocrystals, (iii) characterize the location of the dopants in synthesized nanocrystals, and (iv) move toward a unified picture of the influence of impurities on the behavior of nanocrystals and their assemblies. We will address these goals through a unique collaboration between the University of Minnesota and the University of Duisburg-Essen that will enable us to study doped nanocrystals made from both solution and gas-phase methods.