Lead selenide (PbSe) emerged 70+ years ago for its unique photoconductive sensitivity to the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) spectrum; however, new and exciting research continues ignite interest in this material day.

Dense chalcogenides of Ga, In, and Tl have been extensively studied because of their intriguing stoichiometry and because many of them are semiconductors, photoconductors, or light emitters. On the other hand, while crystalline porous oxides have been known for a long time, the development of crystalline porous chalcogenides, especially selenides and tellurides, is still in its early stages. Co...

PbSe is a pseudo-II-VI material distinguished from ordinary II-VI's (e.g., CdSe, ZnSe) by having both its valence band maximum (VBM) and its conduction band minimum (CBM) located at the fourfold-degenerate L-point in the Brillouin zone. It turns out that this feature dramatically affects the properties of the nanosystem. We have calculated the electronic and optical properties of PbSe quantum d...

Manipulating the morphology of inorganic nanostructures, such as their chirality and branching structure, has been actively pursued as a means of controlling their electrical, optical and mechanical properties. Notable examples of chiral inorganic nanostructures include carbon nanotubes, gold multishell nanowires, mesoporous nanowires and helical nanowires. Branched nanostructures have also bee...

Octahedral PbSe colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) are used to assemble a solid. Because of the special feature of the apexes of the octahedrons, the cross-sectional area of the inter-dot tunneling junctions is much smaller than that formed between spherical NCs. The inter-dot separation between NCs is easily adjusted by mild thermal treatment. Like a spherical NC-solid, the resistance of the octahed...

We examine the effect of strong three-dimensional quantum confinement on the thermopower and electrical conductivity of PbSe nanocrystal superlattices. We show that for comparable carrier concentrations PbSe nanocrystal superlattices exhibit a substantial thermopower enhancement of several hundred microvolts per Kelvin relative to bulk PbSe. We also find that thermopower increases monotonically...

PbSe quantum dot (QD) field effect transistors (FETs) with air-stable electron mobilities above 7 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) are made by infilling sulfide-capped QD films with amorphous alumina using low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD). This high mobility is achieved by combining strong electronic coupling (from the ultrasmall sulfide ligands) with passivation of surface states by the ALD coat...

This paper presents the optical and photophysical properties of RNA templated PbSe nanostructures in the presence of excess Pb(2+). These particles exhibit an onset of absorption in the NIR range at about 1208 nm (0.97 eV) and display weak excitonic bands at 320 nm, 405 nm and 670 nm. The excitation of these particles by 670 nm light causes dual fluorescence in the red and NIR region peaking (r...

Incorporating active media into three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals (PCs) is a useful step towards exploring the functionalities of PCs. Here we report, for the first time, on the fabrication of 3D woodpile PCs with a commercial PbSe quantum dot (QD) composite material by using the two-photon polymerization technique. The fabricated crystals possess photonic band gaps in the near-infrared ...