title: Excited-State Dynamics in Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystals.
abstract: Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals have attracted continuous worldwide interest over the last three decades owing to their remarkable and unique size- and shape-, dependent properties. The colloidal nature of these nanomaterials allows one to take full advantage of nanoscale effects to tailor their optoelectronic and physical-chemical properties, yielding materials that combine size-, shape-, and composition-dependent properties with easy surface manipulation and solution processing. These features have turned the study of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals into a dynamic and multidisciplinary research field, with fascinating fundamental challenges and dazzling application prospects. This review focuses on the excited-state dynamics in these intriguing nanomaterials, covering a range of different relaxation mechanisms that span over 15 orders of magnitude, from a few femtoseconds to a few seconds after photoexcitation. In addition to reviewing the state of the art and highlighting the essential concepts in the field, we also discuss the relevance of the different relaxation processes to a number of potential applications, such as photovoltaics and LEDs. The fundamental physical and chemical principles needed to control and understand the properties of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals are also addressed.
authors: Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, PO Box 80000, 3508 TA, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Soft Condensed Matter, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, PO Box 80000, 3508 TA, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Optical Materials Engineering Laboratory, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Freddy T
authors: FT
authors: Rabouw
authors: Condensed Matter and Interfaces, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, PO Box 80000, 3508 TA, Utrecht, The Netherlands. c.demello-donega@uu.nl.
authors: Celso
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4403-3627
authors: C
authors: de Mello Donega
mesh_terms: D018011:Chalcogens / Q000737:chemistry; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D049449:Luminescence; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry; D011789:Quantum Theory; D012666:Semiconductors; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D018011:Chalcogens; D003102:Colloids
keywords: Auger relaxation; Colloids; Exciton dynamics; Nanoscale; Semiconductor nanocrystals