title: Spontaneous decay of CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots at the air-dielectric interface.
abstract: We report measurements of the fluorescence decay times of CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots at the air-dielectric interface for several dielectrics with different refractive indices. The results are in agreement with a simple theory that accounts for the impact of the refractive index on the density of states and magnitude of the vacuum field, as well as for the local-field correction inside the quantum dot. The results suggest that, by embedding the quantum dots into a high-index dielectric material, one can reduce the spontaneous decay time to sub-nanosecond scale while preserving high quantum efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Arlington, 416 Yates St., Arlington, Texas 76019, USA.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Sarath
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samudrala
authors.forename: Nikolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stelmakh
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vasilyev
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D017097:Electric Impedance; D008027:Light; D008422:Materials Testing; D045663:Quantum Dots; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D017967:Zinc Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D018036:Selenium Compounds; D017967:Zinc Compounds; C058667:cadmium selenide; C044696:zinc selenide