QUANTUM DOTS

AND QUANTUM
CONFINEMENT
EFFECT
Presentation by Leen Abdullah
Abstract
Quantum dots (QD) are nanoparticles/structures that exhibit 3 dimensional quantum
confinement, which leads to many unique optical and transport properties.
Nanomaterials behave so strangely and that is because when you make the material so
tiny that it’s electrons are squeezed into a space smaller than they prefer It’s called
quantum confinement, the smaller you make the crystal the higher the energy of the
electron will be, it’s kinetic energy is increased and that can be thought of as making its
wavelength a bit shorter and forcing it into a box.

Keywords: Quantum dots, Quantum confinement, Semiconductor

particles, Band gap, Exciton, Fluorescence.
Introduction
Definition
Quantum dots (QDs) - are tiny semiconductor
particles that exhibit unique properties due to
their nanoscale size and quantum confinement
effects. They are typically made of materials
like cadmium selenide (CdSe) or indium
arsenide (InAs) and are just a few nanometers
in diameter, having optical and electronic
properties that differ from those of larger
particles as a result of quantum mechanics.
They are a central topic in nanotechnology and
materials science.
Optical properties of quantum dots
In semiconductors, light absorption generally
leads to an electron being excited from the
valence to the conduction band, leaving
behind a hole. The electron and the hole can
bind to each other to form an exciton. When
this exciton recombines (i.e. the electron
resumes its ground state), the exciton's
energy can be emitted as light. This is called
fluorescence. In a simplified model, the
energy of the emitted photon can be
understood as the sum of the band gap
energy between the highest occupied level
and the lowest unoccupied energy level, the
confinement energies of the hole and the
excited electron, and the bound energy of the
exciton (the electron–hole pair):
Quantum dots properties
As the confinement energy depends on the
quantum dot's size, both absorption onset and
fluorescence emission can be tuned by changing
the size of the quantum dot during its synthesis.
The larger the dot, the redder (lower-energy)
its absorption onset and fluorescence spectrum.
Conversely, smaller dots absorb and emit bluer
(higher-energy) light. Furthermore, it was
shown that the lifetime of fluorescence is
determined by the size of the quantum dot.
Larger dots have more closely spaced energy
levels in which the electron–hole pair can be
trapped. Therefore, electron–hole pairs in larger
dots live longer causing larger dots to show a
longer lifetime.
To improve fluorescence quantum yield,
quantum dots can be made with shells of a
Quantum dots physicochemical properties

The physicochemical
properties of QDs have
enabled their application in
various domains such as
single-electron transistors,
solar cells, LEDs, displays,
lasers, photodetector devices,
photocatalysts, photovoltaic
devices, quantum computing,
forensic, microscopy, and
medicine.

Figure 1. Physicochemical properties of Quantum Dots

Quantum dots applications
Quantum dots are particularly promising for optical applications due to their high
extinction coefficient and ultrafast optical nonlinearities with potential applications for
developing all-optical systems. They operate like a single-electron transistor and show the
Coulomb blockade effect. Quantum dots have also been suggested as implementations of
qubits for quantum information processing, and as active elements for thermoelectrics.
Tuning the size of quantum dots is attractive for many potential applications. They have
potential uses in diode lasers, amplifiers, and biological sensors. Quantum dots may be
excited within a locally enhanced electromagnetic field produced by gold nanoparticles,
which then can be observed from the surface plasmon resonance in the photoluminescent
excitation spectrum of (CdSe)ZnS nanocrystals. High-quality quantum dots are well suited
for optical encoding and multiplexing applications due to their broad excitation profiles and
narrow/symmetric emission spectra. The new generations of quantum dots have far-
reaching potential for the study of intracellular processes at the single-molecule level,
high-resolution cellular imaging, long-term in vivo observation of cell trafficking, tumor
targeting, and diagnostics.
 Quantum confinement effect

Quantum confinement effect describes the

phenomenon resulting from electrons and
electron holes being squeezed into a
dimension that approaches a critical
quantum measurement, called the exciton
Bohr radius. In current application, a
quantum dot such as a small sphere
confines in three dimensions, a quantum
well confines in two dimensions, and a
quantum wire confines only in one
dimension. These are also known as zero-,
one- and two-dimensional potential wells,
respectively. In these cases they refer to  3-D system: Bulk structure
the number of dimensions in which a
 2-D confinement: Quantum well
confined particle can act as a free carrier.
 1-D confinement: Quantum wire

 0-D confinement: Quantum dot

Quantum confinement
Quantum confinement can be observed once
the diameter of a material is of the same
magnitude as the de Broglie wavelength of the
electron wave function. When materials are this
small, their electronic and optical properties
deviate substantially from those of bulk
materials.
A particle behaves as if it were free when the
confining dimension is large compared to the
wavelength of the particle. During this state, the
bandgap remains at its original energy due to a
continuous energy state. However, as the
confining dimension decreases and reaches a
certain limit, typically in nanoscale, the energy
spectrum becomes discrete. As a result, the
bandgap becomes size-dependent. As the size
of the particles decreases, the electrons and
electron holes come closer, and the energy
required to activate them increases, which Quantum confinement is responsible for the increase of energy difference
ultimately results in a blueshift in light emission. between energy states and band gap, a phenomenon tightly related to
the optical and electronic properties of the materials.
Quantum confinement in semiconductors

The energy levels of a single

particle in a quantum dot can be
predicted using the particle in a
box model in which the energies
of states depend on the length of
the box. For an exciton inside a
quantum dot, there is also the
Coulomb interaction between the
negatively charged electron and 3D confined electron wave functions in a quantum dot. Here, rectangular and triangular-
shaped quantum dots are shown. Energy states in rectangular dots are more s-type and

the positively charged hole. p-type. However, in a triangular dot the wave functions are mixed due to confinement
symmetry.
By comparing the quantum dot's size
to the exciton Bohr radius, three
regimes can be defined. In the 'strong
confinement regime', the quantum
dot's radius is much smaller than the
exciton Bohr radius, respectively the
confinement energy dominates over
the Coulomb interactions. In the 'weak
confinement' regime, the quantum dot
is larger than the exciton Bohr radius,
respectively the confinement energy
is smaller than the Coulomb
interactions between electron and
hole. The regime where the exciton
Bohr radius and confinement potential
are comparable is called the
'intermediate confinement regime’.
Band gap energy
The band gap can become smaller in the strong confinement
regime as the energy levels split up. The exciton Bohr radius
can be expressed as:

Where aB=0.053 nm is the Bohr radius, m is the mass, μ is the Splitting of energy levels for small
reduced mass, and εr is the size-dependent dielectric constant quantum dots due to the quantum
(relative permittivity). This results in the increase in the total emission confinement effect. The horizontal
energy (the sum of the energy levels in the smaller band gaps in the axis is the radius, or the size, of the
quantum dots and ab* is the
strong confinement regime is larger than the energy levels in the Exciton Bohr radius.
band gaps of the original levels in the weak confinement regime) and
the emission at various wavelengths. If the size distribution of QDs is
not enough peaked, the convolution of multiple emission
wavelengths is observed as a continuous spectra.
 REFERENCE
S
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_well

https://www.patent-art.com/knowledge-center/quantum-dots-in-medical-applications/