Technology Opportunities

Method enables tight control of electronic properties

Highlights

• Intentionally inserting impurity atoms into a crystal, or doping, is the basis for the widespread application of semiconductors in electronic and electro-optic components.
• An additional way to tune the properties of semiconductor structures is by controlling their size and dimensionality via quantum confinement effects.
• Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals are a family of materials that have size-dependent optical and electronic properties, and lend themselves to the simple manufacture of nanocrystal-based light-emitting diodes, solar cells, and transistor devices.
• However, doping has proven elusive for strongly confined colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals.

Our Innovation

Simple, room-temperature method for doping semiconductor nanocrystals with metal impurities. Exquisite control of the electronic properties, including the band gap and Fermi energy achieved through changing the dopant type and concentration.

Illustration of dopants and their related electronic wavefunctions within a semiconductor nanocrystal. Left is the theoretical case of a single dopant. Right is the case of multiple dopants.The diameter of the nanocrystals can be tuned between 2-10 nm, providing further contrl on their properties.

Key Features

• First demonstration of electronic doping of quantum confined semiconductor nanocrystals under heavily doped regime
• Provided understanding of the effects of heavy doping in semiconductor nanocrystals
• Simple doping method in solution at room temperature using metal dopant atoms developed

Development Milestones

• Project in research phase, moving towards demonstrating a device based on doped nanocrystals

The Opportunity

• The ability to closely control the synthesis of doped nanocrystals, together with a better understanding of heavily-doped colloidal Quantum Dots opens potential avenues for solar cells, thin-film transistors, and diverse electronic and optoelectronic devices.