We present an experimental study of a large quantum dot QD capacitively coupled to an aluminum single electron transistor SET and irradiated with terahertz radiation from a blackbody source. The SET is used as a noninvasive electrometer sensitive to a single-charge fluctuation on the QD. Qualitatively different regimes of QD confinement have been identified from the SET response. We demonstrate...

Investigation of many cellular processes using fluorescent quantum dots (QDs) is hindered by the nontrivial requirements for QD surface functionalization and targeting. To address these challenges, we designed, characterized and applied QD-trisNTA, which integrates tris-nitrilotriacetic acid, a small and high-affinity recognition unit for the ubiquitous polyhistidine protein tag. Using QD-trisN...

The conjugation of biomolecules such as proteins and peptides to semiconductor quantum dots (QD) is a critical step in the development of QD-based imaging probes and nanocarriers. Such protein-QD assemblies can have a wide range of biological applications including in vitro protein assays and live-cell fluorescence imaging. One conjugation scheme that has a number of advantages is the self-asse...

Quantum dot (QD)-metal oxide composite forms a "heart" of the QD-sensitized solar cells. It maintains light absorption and electron-hole separation in the system and has been therefore extensively studied. The interest is largely driven by a vision of harvesting the hot carrier energy before it is lost via relaxation. Despite of importance of the process, very little is known about the carrier ...

Redox couples based on cobalt complexes were found to be effective in regenerating both inorganic CdSe quantum dot- and organic dye-sensitizers. The hybrid sensitizer composed of CdSe QD and ruthenium sensitizer (Z907Na) dye showed a maximum power conversion efficiency of 4.76% on using cobalt(o-phen)(3)(2+/3+) as a common redox mediator.

Mesoscopic quantum dots (QDs) are ubiquitous in devices as reliable sources of hot electrons. However, we have observed an unexpectedly significant energy relaxation QD-emitted electrons up to $\ensuremath{\approx}55%$ its excitation $\ensuremath{\le}1.5\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{meV}$ from the Fermi level. The energetics were obtained through transverse magnetic focusing over a few micro...

In this work, we characterized the electronic structure of CdSe quantum dots embedded in a series x Na2O, (1–x) SiO2 glass matrices (x = 0, 0.25, 0.33, and 0.5). We analyzed impact matrix composition on both atomic dot (QD) QD/glass interface, as well luminescence mechanisms, using density functional theory calculations. The increase Na2O content was found to promote formation Cd–O Se–Na interf...

Photoluminescence and time resolved photoluminescence from single metamorphic InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) emitting at 1.3 μm have been measured by means of a novel fibre-based characterization set-up. We demonstrate that the use of a wavelength tunable fibre Bragg grating filter increases the light collection efficiency by more than one order of magnitude as compared to a conventional grating ...

We developed a layer-by-layer method of preparing PbE (E = S or Se) quantum dot (QD) solar cells using metal halide (PbI2, PbCl2, CdI2, or CdCl2) salts dissolved in dimethylformamide to displace oleate surface ligands and form conductive QD solids. The resulting QD solids have a significant reduction in the carbon content compared to films treated with thiols and organic halides. We find that t...