Dedoping of Intraband Silver Selenide Colloidal Quantum Dots through Strong Electronic Coupling at Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Interfaces.

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) infrared (IR) photodetectors can be fabricated and operated with larger spectral tunability, fewer limitations in terms of cooling requirements and substrate lattice matching, and at a potentially lower cost than detectors based on traditional bulk materials. Silver selenide (AgSe) has emerged as a promising sustainable alternative to current state-of-the-art toxic semiconductors based on lead, cadmium, and mercury operating in the IR. However, an impeding gap in available absorption bandwidth for AgSe CQDs exists in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) region due to degenerate doping by the environment, switching the CQDs from intrinsic interband semiconductors in the near-infrared (NIR) to intraband absorbing CQDs in the mid-wave infrared (MWIR).

Synthesis of luminescent core/shell α-ZnP/ZnS quantum dots.

Metal chalcogenide nanoparticles offer vast control over their optoelectronic properties via size, shape, composition, and morphology which has led to their use across fields including optoelectronics, energy storage, and catalysis. While cadmium and lead-based nanocrystals are prevalent in applications, concerns over their toxicity have motivated researchers to explore alternate classes of nanomaterials based on environmentally benign metals such as zinc and tin. The goal of this research is to identify material systems that offer comparable performance to existing metal chalcogenide systems from abundant, recyclable, and environmentally benign materials.

High-performance thermoelectric silver selenide thin films cation exchanged from a copper selenide template.

Over the past decade, AgSe has attracted increasing attention due to its potentially excellent thermoelectric (TE) performance as an n-type semiconductor. It has been considered a promising alternative to Bi-Te alloys and other commonly used yet toxic and/or expensive TE materials. To optimize the TE performance of AgSe, recent research has focused on fabricating nanosized AgSe.