Optical properties and effect of carrier tunnelling in CdSe colloidal quantum dots: A comparative study with different ligands

We studied both cw and time-resolved photoluminescence of colloidal CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots capped with chemical ligands. For the trioctylphosphine oxide capped CdSe/ZnS QDs, both the luminescence intensity and lifetime were found to be increased with increasing temperatures, which can be explained by the thermal activation of the carriers trapped at shallow trapping centers. After the ligand exchange into 3-mercaptopropionic acid, the non-radiative recombination rate was increased and the luminescence efficiency was decreased at room temperature. When the QDs were employed in photovoltaic devices, photocurrent was found to be increased after the ligand exchange. The improved photocurrents observed in photovoltaic devices can be explained by the improved tunnelling probability between the neighbouring QDs.