Title

Role of Symmetry Breaking on the Optical Transitions in Lead-Salt Quantum Dots

Authors

Authors

G. Nootz; L. A. Padilha; P. D. Olszak; S. Webster; D. J. Hagan; E. W. Van Stryland; L. Levina; V. Sukhovatkin; L. Brzozowski;E. H. Sargent

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Nano Lett.

Keywords

Quantum-dots; two-photon absorption; inversion symmetry; selection; rules; nonlinear spectroscopy; PBSE NANOCRYSTALS; ELECTRONIC-STRUCTURE; Chemistry, Multidisciplinary; Chemistry, Physical; Nanoscience &; Nanotechnology; Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Physics, Applied; Physics, Condensed Matter

Abstract

The influence of quantum confinement on the one- and two-photon absorption spectra (1PA and 2PA) of PbS and PbSe semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) is investigated. The results show 2PA peaks at energies where only 1PA transitions are predicted and 1PA peaks where only 2PA transitions are predicted by the often used isotropic k.p four-band envelope function formalism. The first experimentally identified two-photon absorption peak coincides with the energy:of the first one photon allowed transition. This first two photon peak cannot be explained by band anisotropy, verifying that the inversion symmetry of the wave functions is broken and relaxation of the parity selection rules has to be taken into account to explain optical transitions in lead-salt QDs. Thus, while the band anisotropy of the bulk semiconductor plays a role in the absorption spectra, especially for the more anisotropic PbSe QDs, a complete model of the absorption spectra, for both 1PA and 2PA, must also include symmetry breaking of the quantum confined wave functions. These studies clarify the controversy of the origin of spectral features in lead-salt QDs.

Journal Title

Nano Letters

Volume

10

Issue/Number

9

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

3577

Last Page

3582

WOS Identifier

WOS:000281498200061

ISSN

1530-6984

Share

COinS