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Introduction to quantum dots definition and applications

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The university of Jordan

Introduction to quantum dots


definition and applications

Noor Al-Hassy Maryam Elia

Dr. Wala Al-Tamimi


Contents
● Background +Introduction 2
● Spin 8
● Optical properties 9
● Synthesis of Quantum Dots 11
● Transport through quantum dots 17
● Application a- quantum dot solar cell 20

b- quantum computing 22

c-biological tagging 25

d- LED 26

● Reference 26

● appendix 28
Background

Alexey Ekim Vasilovov of Russia's State Optical Institute discovered the


remarkable optical and electronic properties of nanocrystalline
semiconductors in 1981, when he first synthesized nanocrystals
integrated in a glass matrix.
Louis Brus produced the first colloidal semiconductor nanocrystallite
solutions four years later; in a 1988 article, Mark Reed coined the term
"quantum dots," a far more linguistically acceptable name than
"zero-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures."
 However, it wasn't until a seminal 1993 paper by Murray, Norris, and
Bawendi (which has since received an unbelievable 7,400 citations)
explaining a "hot-injection" synthesis for monodisperse colloidal
nanocrystals that researchers began to consider quantum dots for their
commercial potential, not just as a curiosity. [1]

Introduction
Quantum dots are semiconductors ultra-size (2-10 nm) made up of
100-10,000 atoms, we called them( artificial atoms), these
semiconductors nanocrystal with nanometer size diameter have
quantum properties which we can their optical and electromagnetic
effects by their quantum size effect.
QDs exhibit size unique optical properties due to changes in band gap
energy caused by quantum confinement effects, when the light
absorbed by the quantum dots, the electrons get excited from the
valence band to the conduction band leave a hole in the valence band,
when the electron and hole recombine, the energy released in the form
of photon.
Quantum Confinement the spatial confinement of electron-hole pairs
(excitons) in one or more dimensions within a material, due to the
confinement of the electronic wave function to the physical dimensions
of the particles.
There is 3D confinement:
1D confinement: Quantum Wells
2D confinement: Quantum Wire
3D confinement: Quantum Dot
In metal the metal there overlap between conduction and valence
band, so no band gap therefore quantum size effects are less prevalent,
in semiconductors Quantum confinement is more prominent because
they have an energy gap.
Particle when reached to de- Broglie wavelength of electrons
Electron-hole pairs become spatially confined, therefore the energy
between energy bands will increase with decreasing particle size.
So, if the average energy of electrons in the conduction band
● It will increase energy level spacing and it will cause a larger band
gap between valence and conduction band .
2
The band gap of a sphere of quantum dot increases by factor 1/𝑅 (R is
the particle radius)
Figure 1: describe the relation between the energy band and the
particle size.
When photon hit the quantum dots the electron absorb the photon
energy and jump from the valence band to conduction band ,when the
electron relax it emit an energy equal to the energy difference, the
energy difference determines by the band gap, therefore the emission
light from the quantum dot depend on the size of quantum dots, the
bigger the quantum dots the larger the wavelength of the emission
light.
The bigger quantum dots will emit the red light, the smaller will emit
blue light, and if the size between these sizes will emit other colors.
The smaller quantum dots will have a larger band gap therefore more
energy will need it to jump to the conduction band, when the electron
relaxes it will emit a higher energy so the frequency will be lower( blue
light) .
Figure: show the relation between the quantum dot size and the
emission wavelength.
Summary:
Quantum dots have properties which makes them good to use:
nano size and nanocrystal diameter , high surface to volume ratio.
There is relation between the size dot and the bandgap energy by factor
2
1\𝑅 .
We can vary the wavelength of light emission by changing the size of
the dot.
Quantum dots have quantum size effects. We can vary their optical and
electromagnetic effects .
Quantum dot is simply a small box that can be filled with electrons.
Semiconductors
In physics we hear the word semiconductor a lot, but what is
semiconductor ? Why are semiconductors so important in physics ?
the main difference between semiconductor, metal and insulator is in
the available energies for electrons in the material, insulator have a
large gap between conduction and valence band, metal there overlap
between conduction and valence band, but in semiconductor there a
small gap, so the electron can bridge this gap with thermal or other
excitations .
semiconductors nowadays play an important role in every aspect in our
life as an examples ICs(integrated circuits) and electronic discrete
components such as diodes and transistors are made of
semiconductors, and all that because the properties of the
semiconductor like compactness, reliability, power efficiency, and low
cost.
Quantum dots are semiconductor nanostructure, they synthesized from
group IIeVI (CdSe, CdS, ZnO, ZnS), IIIeV (GaN, GaP, InP), and IVeVI (PbSe,
pbS) elements in the periodic table due to their semiconductor
properties, we can doped Impurities into the crystal based on their
optical properties Transition metal dopants, such as Mn^2, Cu^2, Fe^2,
Cr^2, and Co^2,
are widely studied to modulate QD’s magnetic and optical properties
Advantages of doping can include improved quantum yield (QY) and
longer excited state lifetime.
Spin
Spin one of the fundamental properties in quantum physics ,In the 1920
Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach of the University of Hamburg in
Germany did atomic beam experiments they measure magnetic
field produced by the electrons orbiting nuclei in atoms, the
scientists found that the electrons producing tiny magnetic field
independent of those from their orbital motions, now we know
that this rotation we called spin, we can define spin the total
angular momentum, or intrinsic angular momentum, of a body, in
quantum mechanics the angular momentum is discrete not like
classical physic which is continuous.
Elections are fermions ) particle that has an odd half-integer ( 1/2,
3/2, …. ) spin, the two-electron state is the product of the orbital
and spin state, the total two-electron state must be
anti-symmetric, if the orbital part is symmetric, the spin state is
anti-symmetric and if the spin state is symmetric , the orbital part
is anti-symmetric. [3]

Optical properties
To understand how to improve the optical properties for quantum
dots we need to know that electron band with hole by coulomb
force and travel freely in the semiconductor, and form the
excitation radiative time (the amount of time before which the exciton
radiative decays) is the inverse of the radiative decay rate we know the
exciton oscillator strength(f)
3
3𝑚𝑒𝑐 2πϵ
τr = 2 2
𝑛𝑓𝑒 ω˳
Where ω˳ is the optical transition angular frequency, n is the refractive
index, 𝑚𝑒 is the electron free mass and f is the excitonic oscillator
strength. is given by
*
2𝑚𝑒 𝑖ω˳𝑡 2
f= 2 ΔE| < Ѱℎ|𝑒 |Ѱ𝑒 > |
ħ

Where ΔE is the energy separation between the electron and the hole,
Ѱℎ and Ѱ𝑒 are the time dependent hole and electron wave function,
they represent probability to find a carrier in a certain position at a
certain time
𝑖𝐸ℎ𝑡
− 𝑖𝑘ℎ·𝑟
ħ
Ѱℎ=𝑒 𝑒 ∅ℎ(x,t)
𝑖𝐸𝑒𝑡
− 𝑖𝑘𝑒·𝑟
ħ
Ѱ𝑒=𝑒 𝑒 ∅𝑒(x,t)
*
2𝑚𝑒 2
f= 2 ΔEδ(𝑘 -𝑘ℎ)* δ(𝐸𝑒 − 𝐸ℎ − ℏω0)*| < ∅ℎ|∅𝑒 > |
ħ 𝑒

δ represent delta function, from the law of conservation energy


and momentum the energy of photon should equal to the
separation of hole and electron.
the last term called overlap integral, that term will show us how
quantum dots have better optical properties, quantum dots create a
high degree of confinement for the exciton, so the overlap which
represent the probability of finding the electron and hole at physically
the same space will increase in quantum dots compared to other
material, and so the exciton oscillator strength should increase causing
a decrease in the exciton radiative lifetime which creates a faster
excitonic recombination rate, that means higher radiative efficiency
from the nanostructure.
Figure (3) shows the overlap for different transitions .
Overlap close to one when the electron and hole have the same
wavefunction, the oscillator strength will increase and create a faster
excitonic recombination rate, which we call it allowed transitions, but in
the cause when the overlap integral close to zero due to the
orthogonality of the wave functions inside a quantum dot will have a
slower faster excitonic recombination rate, we call that forbidden
transitions. [1]

Synthesis of Quantum Dots

There two ways to make quantum dot :

A-Top-Down Approach
In the top-down method, the bulk material is finely grounded to
particles with the size range in nanometers. by using methods like
electron beam lithography , chemical vapor deposition, molecular beam
epitaxy[2]
Electron Beam Lithography(EBL) is commonly used Because it includes
Control the shape and size  of QD by controlled the size of electron
beam, also the electron beam allows sizes below 10 nm. 
To carve a metal layer to nanometers size by this method we coat the
layer with an organic material called resist, which is sensitive to the
electrons, then we focus an electron beam directed to the layer to form
a pattern dot by dot and line by line. finally,  we need to remove the
resist about the metal layer by the process called  etching, is a
chemically removed.
In make quantum dots we use molecular beam epitaxy which take
−8 −12
place in vacuum environment or ultra-high vacuum (10 − 10
) , we use this method because its deposition rate which make the
sample grow epitaxially. First to make quantum dots start with
semiconductor heterostructure a sandwich of different layers of
semiconducting materials then the materials will grow on top of
each other using molecular beam epitaxy( MBE is deposition of
one or more pure materials onto a single crystal wafer one layer
of atoms at a time in order to get a perfect crystal.
In this case GaAs and AlGAs, Gallium arsenide GaAs This material
has high electron mobility and a wide band-gap, and it is currently
being developed in a variety of applications.
they will doping the n-AlGaAs layer with Si, free electrons are
introduced in the interfere between GaAs and AlGaAs forming a
2-D electron gas (2DEG) a thin 10 nm sheet of electrons that can
only move along the interference, the 2-D electron gas can have a
high mobility relatively( Due to the high electrical breakdown strength of
GaN) low electron density but we want to control the number of
electrons in the quantum dots, the low electron density result in a
large fermi wavelength approximately 40 nm and a large
screening length which allow us to locally deplete the 2DEC with
electric field, this electric field created by applying negative
voltage to the metal gate electrodes on top the heterostructure.
Now they need to make a gate structure. First they fabricate these
electrodes. They spin a layer of organic resists( typically
poly-methyl-methacrylate) on the heterostructure surface, They
define the gate pattern by writing with a focused electron beam in
the electron-sensitive resist. This breaks the polymer chains , the
next step meta is evaporated which only makes contact to the
heterostructure at the places where the resist has been exposed,
the metal gate consists of thin 5nm sticking layer of titanium with
30 nm layer of gold on top, the final stage called lift-off step the
remaining resist is removed with acetone, They use electron
beam to write very small accurately patterns with a resolution of
about 20 nm which is very good allowing to make very
complicated gate structure by applying negative voltage to the
gate, finally the 2DEG is locally depleted creating one or more
islands that are isolated from the large 2DEG reservoirs, the
islands are the quantum dots,
They use rapid thermal annealing to diffuse AuGeNi from the
surface to the 2DEG below, this forms ohmic contracts contact the
2DEG source and drain reservoirs electrically to metal ponding
pads (run toward current or voltage probes) enabling us to
perform transport measurements.
They need to control the number of electrons in the islands (quantum
dots) by making an electron gate (applying electrical voltages ), and for
that we need to study the transport through quantum dots.
Summarily There are many possibilities to realize such confinement,
first category When InGaAs is grown on GaAs, will appear islands due to
the mismatch in the lattice constants, there will be a small critical
thickness of only a few monolayers is reached, it will cover with further
layers of GaAs these quantum dots lens shaped with height 5nm, the
confinement from the difference in the conduction and valence band
edges of the involved materials, second category lateral quantum dots,
is based on two-dimensional electron gasses (2DEGs) in
heterostructures from materials with suitable band properties and
additional dopants, the different from the first category that strongly
confined along the growth direction, it provide a confinement in two
dimensions, due to their small diameters of ∼10–100 nm, there still a
serval other QD implementations exist, but we will not talk about it
here. [2]

Schnauber et al. have fabricated indium arsenide quantum dots using


electron beam lithography for the development of a multi-node
quantum optical circuit (Schnauber et al. 2018)
Fatimy et al. have fabricated epitaxial graphene quantum dots using
lithographic techniques for bolometric sensors (Fatimy et al. 2016)[2]
Top-down approach was unsuitable for large-scale applications Couse
the cost, time, resource, and necessary instrumentation was simply
too high to produce a bulk sample of quantum dots.
B-Bottom-up approach 
The bottom-up approach involves building of nanomaterials from the
atomic scale, one atom or molecule combine with each other atoms or
molecules in the process called  nucleation to make a cluster. The
cluster grows into nanostructure materials.
This method could produce QD without need for expensive
instrumentation or labor-intensive lithography. It proved incredibly
effective and variations of it are used today for synthesis of QD on the
kilogram scale.
There are many methods to produce a QD by bottom-up approach like
colloidal structure, viral pool, electrochemical structure, and huge
industry.
The colloidal structure is commonly used because it highly levels
control. 
Nucleation and growth
Nucleation occurs when a small nucleus begins to form in the liquid, the
nuclei then grows as atoms from the liquid are attached to it.[3]
Classical theory of nucleation
Homogeneous nucleation 
Nucleation is the process that determines how long an observer has to
wait before the new phase structure appears 
● thermodynamic approach
● away from the surface
● Nucleation is a first-order phase transitions
● Is a random process, does not involve any nucleation site, even in
two identical systems nucleation will occur at different times.

Supersaturation, Is the state of the solution were adding more solute to


the solvent will not increase  the concentration of the system , the
supersaturation has a high free energy, the formation of a solid phase
reduction a free energy and conservation of overall equilibrium
concentration of the system. 
There is a free energy difference between a solid phase and liquid
phase  ΔG.
ΔG=4r2γ+43π r3ΔGv
the total free energy of a nanoparticle defined as the sum of the
surface free energy γ and the volume free energy ΔGv.

For volume free energy :  43π r3ΔGv


always being negative,
ΔGv= -kTΩLn1+
Where Ω is atomic volume.
 
For surface free energy : 4r2γ
always being positive

to determine the critical free energy, which a nucleus must pass


through in order to form a stable nucleus
ΔGcrit= 43πγrcrit
rcrit=- 2ΔGv
This critical radius corresponds to the minimum size at which a particle
can survive in solution without being  re-dissolved.[4]
The total free energy having a positive change causes the increase in
the surface energy than of the free energy.

The increase in temperature results in a decrease in the critical values.


Classical Growth
growth is the process of increasing the size of a critical crystal ,
nucleation initiates the process, and then additional ions and molecules
bind with the newly formed crystal structure to grow it larger.
When the concentration of growth species reduces below the minimum
concentration for nucleation, nucleation stops, whereas the growth
continues
The size distribution of nanoparticles can be controlled by two
mechanisms: diffusion and surface process. 

Experiment
For example, let us explain how to prepare a Cadmium Solenoid (CdSe)
Nanocrystals by colloidal method Experimentally.
The method involved injection of cool solution into hot liquid at (300
0
C), then the nuclei of  is appear, then we will decrease the 
temperature to 1700C to allow the nuclei to grow and reach the critical
size . 
Now ,gradually increase the temperature, but  below 300C to.The
nucleus continues to grow and have different sizes. 
There are molecules on the surface make slow down the growth at high
temperature, this defect lead to making the nanocrystals  to form the
bulk lattice.
Then the Nanocrystals can be separated from the growth solution by
adding a non-solvent and can then be re-dissolved in a suitable organic
solvent to form stable colloidal suspensions.
Transport through quantum dots
To detect the change number of electrons in the quantum dot we need
to come up with quantum point contact(QPC), from constant
interaction (CI) ( which is a post-Hartree–Fock linear variational
method for solving the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation within
the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for a quantum
chemical multi-electron system) we know two important
assumptions First, the coulomb interaction among the electrons
captured by a single constant capacitance )
C=Cs+CD+Cg
Where Cs capacitance to the source
CD capacitance to the drain
Cg capacitance to the gate
The other assumption that the district energy spectrum
independent of the number of electrons on the dot, and therefore
the total energy given by:
𝑁
| 2| 2
(− ⅇ (𝑁−𝑁˳)+𝐶𝑠𝑣𝑠𝐷+𝐶𝑔𝑉𝑔)
U(N)= 2𝑐
+ ∑ 𝐸𝑛(𝐵)
𝑛=1

Where e is the charge of the electron, N˳ is the number of electrons in


the dot at zero gate voltage, the terms 𝐶𝑠𝑣𝑠𝐷 and 𝐶𝑔𝑉𝑔 can change
continuously, represent the charge induced by the bias voltage trough
capacitance(Cs) and by gate voltage (Cg), the last term is the sum of the
occupied single-particle energy level 𝐸𝑛(𝐵) , the energy level separated
by an energy
ΔE=En-En-1 and depend on the characteristics of the confinement
potential.
Now we need to know the energy required to add an electron to
quantum dots, we will describe it by electrochemical potential :
1 𝐸𝑐
μ(N)=U(N)-U(N-1)=(N-N˳- 2 )Ec - |𝑒|
(𝐶𝑠𝑣𝑠𝐷 + 𝐶𝑔𝑉𝑔)+EN
2

where Ec is the charging energy, Ec= 𝐶
, since the dot is very small it has
a small capacitance therefore a large charging energy,
And we have the addition energy (discrete energy spaced by this
energy), the addition energy consists of the electrochemical potential
and the energy spacing between two quantum levels, the addition
energy may be equal to Ec because ΔE =Zero when two consecutive
electrons are added to same spin-degenerate level.
Eadd(N)= μ(N+1)- μ(N)=Ec+ΔE
The electrochemical potential must be in this case to transport to
happen and to the electrons tunnel from the source onto the dot that
the electrochemical potential level falls within the bias window
between the electrochemical potential of the source and the drain
μs≥ μ≥ μD with -|e|𝑣𝑠𝐷=μs- μD

Figure 4 : diagram show the electrochemical potential of the quantum


dot, in (a) at low temperatures and small bias voltage therefore no
current flow and the number of electrons remain fixed at N-1 due to
coulomb blockade, in (b) we can lift the coulomb blockade by changing
the voltage applied to the gate electrode with respect to the reservoirs,
we can shift the ladder of electrochemical potential level up or down,
when level falls the current is switched, this cycle know as single
electron tunneling where the electrons number alternates between N-1
and N, the Nth electron tunnel to the drain so other electron come onto
the dot again from the source.in(c) another way to lift the coulomb
blockade by changing the source-drain voltage VSD , in another words
we keep the drain potential fixed and change source potential, this will
increase the bias window and due to the capacitive coupling to the
source the electrochemical drag of the dot, by increasing VSD until the
ground state and the excited state transition fall with the bias window ,
the electron will tunnel not just by the ground state but with the excited
state of the N-electron dot, it will change the total current.in(d)two
electrons can tunnel onto the dot at the same time because of the
larger bias voltage.

Figure 5: show coulomb peak in current versus gate voltage in the


linear-response regime.[2]
Applications:
quantum dot solar cell
solar cell function 
A solar cell is PN junction, by using a multi-layer of semiconductors, one
of them is doner (N-type) and the second is acceptor (P-type) produced
by doping process. There is an electric field form between these two
layers that prevents the electrons from moving.
incoming photons hit the cell and get absorbed by the junction, then if
the photon has energy greater than or equal to the band gap energy of
the semiconductor the photon will be absorbed and transfer its energy
to the electron generating an electron hole pair. This electron hole pair
can then drift through the built-in electric field within the PN junction
and contribute to a net current within the device.
If we calculated the power generated by device is equal to P=IV by
positive voltage and negative current  giving us a negative power.
Negative power means the device is supplying energy rather than
consuming, but the amount of the power generated isn’t exactly equal
to a solar cell power. The conversion efficiency is less than that, around
33%.

The concept of nanotechnology in solar cells is basically all about


conversion efficiency higher and higher while decreasing the prices
lower and lower.
Now, how the QD’s used to increase the efficiency of the  solar cell ?
QD’s have tunable bandgaps and changing their size can lead to
absorption of large amounts of sunlight. The efficiency is as high as
45%.
 Traditionally, multi-junction solar cells are made with a collection of
multiple semiconductor materials. Because each material has a
different band gap, each material's p-n junction will be optimized for a
different incoming wavelength of light. Using multiple materials enables
the absorbance of a broader range of wavelengths, which increases the
cell's electrical conversion efficiency.

However, due to the use of multiple materials, multi-junction solar cells


are cost prohibitive for many commercial uses. Because the band gap of
quantum dots can be tuned by varying the particle radius,
multi-junction cells can be produced by merging quantum dot
semiconductors of various sizes (and therefore different band gaps).
Using the same material reduces production costs, and quantum dots'
enhanced absorption spectrum can be used to raise short-circuit
current and overall cell efficiency.
Zinc oxide quantum dots
An example shows us how the dot's size will change the bandgap
energy.
There 2 ZD dot, the crystallized size values, the bandgap energy,
and the active surface area for ZD1 and ZD2
2.9 and 3.6 nm, 3.57 eV and 3.54 eV, and 312.10 m2/g and 278.05
m2/g, respectively. Absorption and fluorescence spectra shifted
for ZDs from 340 to 315 nm and from 530 to 500 nm,
respectively, due to its confinement effect of their small sizes, The
prepared samples revealed that the photocatalytic activity of ZD1
is higher than ZD2 by 20%, we notice that when the size
decreasing the photocatalytic activity of ZD will be higher.
2- Quantum computing
There are many quantum concepts that are still controversial for many
people like superposition, entanglement, and projection. We cannot
relate this concept to our everyday life.
To describe quantum computing we emerge the simplest case: a
quantum two-level system unlike classical two-level system Which the
state must be zero or one, the quantum two-level system will be in
superposition of states |0> and |1> , it both states at the same time
that does not make sense in the everyday world around.
We can’t know the state of the substrate individual, the two-level state
is entangled, we may know the whole system like example (|01> -
|10>)/2, the two states do not have a defined state; they interact with
each other due to the strong connection between the two systems.
In quantum mechanics when we measure the wavefunction collapse
and the measurement appears so the measurement is not determined
from Schrodinger equation, coupling the quantum system we measure
one of the possible measurement eigenstates, we can determine the
probability for each outcome.
In computers we cannot do many of mathematical calculations like
prime factoring of large integers, it will take forever to find prime
factors for large integer because every number of digits the grow
exponentially, that is why the scientist thought we need a quantum
computer can solve complicated calculation, it can use unique feature
of quantum system like entanglement.
In 1982, Richard Feynman and David Deutsch and other researchers
envisioned a set of quantum two level-system , the system coupled to
each other, in other word the system is superposition of different state,
by controlling the Hamiltonian system and therefore the time-evolution
a computation might be performed in fewer steps than is possible in
normal classically computers.
Quantum computers take input value 0 or 1 and computes the
corresponding output value F(0) or F(1), unlike the classical computer
who take one input and out one output, a quantum computer with one
quantum bit which called qubit could take input as a value of
superposition of |0> and |1> the output will be superposition of F|0>
and F|1> Due to the linearity of quantum mechanics, we notice it has
performed two calculations in a single step, for a two qubit the input
will be a superposition of four states, it has proven that the calculation
scales exponentially with the number of qubits.
There are some problems have been overlooked first, we say before
quantum mechanics say that superposition of possible measurement
outcomes can only exist before it measured, the measurement gives
one outcome just, the exponential computing power appears
inaccessible, second the interaction of the quantum system with the
uncontrolled environment which will disturbs the desired quantum
evolution this process known as decoherence. Additional errors are
introduced by imperfection in the quantum operation.
The challenge here is building an actual quantum computer with a
sufficiently large number of coupled qubits.
There is a lot of implementation in building quantum computer but
there currently studied ,trapped ions been used to demonstrate a
universal set of one or two qubit operations, microscopic system (ions
or atoms) have excellent coherence properties but unfortunately are
not easily accessible, but if we use a large system such solid state
devices can be scaled more decoherence time, the solid state with long
decoherence time represent the best of both worlds.
System could be provided by the spin of an electron trapped in
quantum dot (spin qubit)
There was a proposal by loss and DiVincenzo, describe a quantum
two-level system defined by the spin orientation of a single electron
trapped in quantum dots, we know from before the electron can spin
up or down with respect to external magnetic, these eigenstate |↑> and
|↓> describe the two states for qubits.
When applying negative voltage to gates (electrodes) on the top of the
semiconductor heterostructure< increasing the number of dots by
adding more electrodes, controlling number of electrons trapped on
each dot by tuning all gate voltages as well tunnel coupling between the
dots.
When adding external magnetic field B we can tune the Zeeman
splitting in this way we can control the energy level .
To perform single-qubit operation we can a microwave magnetic field
with Zeeman splitting, the oscillating magnetic component
perpendicular to the static magnetic field result in a spin nutation, will
be created preposition of |↑> and |↓>, this magnetic technique known
as electron spin resonance.
The main advantage of using the electron’s spin degree of freedom to
encode a qubit it’s the spin disturbed only weakly by the environment ,
the electron’s charge degree of freedom is much easier to manipulate
and read out , but it coupled via strong coulomb interaction to charge
fluctuation ( will cause ubiquitous noise )[2]

3- Biological
Biological tagging
Scientists have been using chemically synthesized fluorescent dyes for
tagging biology a long time ago, but quantum dots have unique optical
properties that make them suitable for biological tagging.
When the photon incident on the quantum dots, the dot emission
energy depends on the band gap, this process is called Fluorescence.
The wavelength of the emission energy depends on the size of the dot.

Figure: The absorption spectrum (dashed lines) of the QD (green) is very


broad, whereas that of the organic die (orange) is narrow.
A broad absorption and narrow emission spectrum mean a single
excitation source can be used to excite QDs of different colors making
them ideal for imaging multiple targets simultaneously.
Quantum dots are better than organic dye because of their high
quantum yield.
𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠
quantum yield= 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑑 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠

Quantum dots have a high quantum yield because they have a high
density of energy states near the bandgap.
A higher quantum yield means a brighter emission. The quantum yield
of some QDs is 20 times greater than traditional organic
fluorophores.[4]

4-Light Emitters(LED)
indium gallium nitride (InGaN) LEDs were first fabricated in the
1990s,
from then InGaN have been used in many industrial including
signals and optical communication and data storage, solid state
lighting, television sets, laptops, mobile devices, and augmented-
and virtual-reality solutions, the scientist has been trying to
achieve higher optical output, reliability, longevity, and versatility
from semiconductors leading to the need for LEDs that can emit
different colors of light,
Basically, InGaN material has been used to generate purple and
blue light, with aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP)
used to generate red, orange, and yellow light.
The color is based on the wavelength that depends on the band gap of
the quantum dots .

References:
Optical and Micro-Structural Characterization of MBE Grown Indium
Gallium Nitride Polar Quantum Dots, Rami Tarek El Afandy, jule
2011[1]
D.Heiss-Quantum dots: a Doorway to Nanoscale physics-2005[2]
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-exactly-is-the-spin/
[3]

Nack Networks -quantum dots[4]

https://sci-hub.hkvisa.net/10.1016/B978-0-12-816662-8.00015-1
https://sci-hub.hkvisa.net/10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-030212-184
248
https://news.mit.edu/2021/smart-researchers-discover-new-way-gen
erate-light-using-pre-existing-defects-semiconductors-1101
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925346721
004432

Nanotechnology timeline. National Nanotechnology Initiative.


http://www.nano.gov/timeline

Optical Properties of Quantum Dots, Jonathan MELVILLE, 2015,


https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive.

https://depts.washington.edu/solgel/documents/class_docs/MSE502
/Ch_3_Section_3.2.1-3.2.5.3.pdf

https://ebrary.net/185199/engineering/synthesis_quantum_dots
APPENDIX
We did a simulation about quantum dots on a vesta, 3D visualization program
for structural models, volumetric data such as electron/nuclear densities,
and crystal morphologies.

We made a copper unit cell.

Then we expand the unit cell of copper.


we change the center atom to nitrogen atom .
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This bonding between nitrogen and other copper atoms will make new
properties for this material, this quantum dot simple but show us the
idea behind quantum dots .

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