Broadband optical non-linearity induced by charge-transfer excitons in type-II CdSe/ZnTe nanocrystals

Band Gap Engineering Improves Three-Photon Luminescence of Quantum Dots for Deep Brain Imaging

Three-photon fluorescence microscopy (3PFM) has emerged as a promising tool in monitoring the structures and functions of the brain. Compared to the various imaging technologies, 3PFM enables a deep-penetrating depth attributed to tighter excitation confinement and suppressed photon scattering. However, the shortage of three-photon probes with a large absorption cross section (σ₃) substantially limits its uses. Herein, CdSe/CdS/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) with enhanced 3PF performance were synthesized via the band gap engineering strategy. The introduction of a CdS interlayer with optimized thickness between the emitting CdSe core and the ZnS shell significantly enhanced the 3P absorption cross section of QDs, which originated from the intrinsic piezoelectric polarization effect and the change of the core/shell structure from type-I to quasi-type-II. In addition, the outer ZnS layer compensated the poor electronic passivation of CdS, providing a high level of passivation for the improvement of quantum yield as well as the 3P action cross section of QDs. Under the excitation of a 1600 nm femtosecond laser, PEGylated CdSe/CdS/ZnS QDs were used for in vivo 3PFM imaging of cerebral vessels with high resolution. A tiny capillary with a diameter of 0.8 μm could be resolved at the imaging depth of 1550 μm in a mouse brain with an opened skull. A penetration depth of 850 μm beneath the skull was also achieved using a mouse model with an intact skull.

Gradient Type-II CdSe/CdSeTe/CdTe Core/Crown/Crown Heteronanoplatelets with Asymmetric Shape and Disproportional Excitonic Properties

Characterized by their strong 1D confinement and long-lifetime red-shifted emission spectra, colloidal nanoplatelets (NPLs) with type-II electronic structure provide an exciting ground to design complex heterostructures with remarkable properties. This work demonstrates the synthesis and optical characterization of CdSe/CdSeTe/CdTe core/crown/crown NPLs having a step-wise gradient electronic structure and disproportional wavefunction distribution, in which the excitonic properties of the electron and hole can be finely tuned through adjusting the geometry of the intermediate crown. The first crown with staggered configuration gives rise to a series of direct and indirect transition channels that activation/deactivation of each channel is possible through wavefunction engineering. Moreover, these NPLs allow for switching between active channels with temperature, where lattice contraction directly affects the electron-hole (e-h) overlap. Dominated by the indirect transition channels over direct transitions, the lifetime of the NPLs starts to increase at 9 K, indicative of low dark-bright exciton splitting energy. The charge transfer states from the two type-II interfaces promote a large number of indirect transitions, which effectively increase the absorption of low-energy photons critical for nonlinear properties. As a result, these NPLs demonstrate exceptionally high two-photon absorption cross-sections with the highest value of 12.9 × 10⁶ GM and superlinear behavior.

Tunable Nonlinear Optical Property of MnS Nanoparticles with Different Size and Crystal Form

It is significant to study the reason that semiconductor material has adjustable third-order optical nonlinearity through crystal form and dimensions are changed. αMnS nanoparticles with different crystal forms and sizes were successfully prepared by one-step hydrothermal synthesis method and their size-limited third-order nonlinear optical property was tested by Z-scan technique with 30 ps laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength. Nanoparticles of different crystal forms exhibited different NLO (nonlinear optical) responses. γMnS had stronger NLO response than αMnS because of higher fluorescence quantum yield. Two-photon absorption and the nonlinear refraction are enhanced as size of nanoparticlesreduced. The nanoparticles had maximum NLO susceptibility which was 3.09 × 10⁻¹² esu. Susceptibility of αMnS increased about nine times than that of largest nanoparticles. However, it was reduced when size was further decreased. This trend was explained by the effects of light induced dipole moments. And defects in αMnS nanoparticles also had effect on this nonlinear process. MnS nanoparticles had potential application value in optical limiting and optical modulation.

Size confinement and origins of two-photon absorption and refraction in CdSe quantum dots

Tuning a semiconductor nanomaterial with large two-photon absorption cross section in the near-infrared wavelength and investigating the correlation and origins between its size and third-order nonlinear optical properties are very important in possible applications. In this work, CdSe quantum dots (QDs) with various sizes were successfully prepared, and their size-confined third-order nonlinear optical properties were investigated by Z-scan technique with 100 fs laser pulses at 800 nm wavelength. Both the two-photon absorption and nonlinear refraction were enhanced about 8.1 times with size decrease and then weakened to 2 times with further size decrease. QDs with the diameter of 4.9 nm had the largest nonlinear optical susceptibility of 7.8 × 10^-12 esu. The effects of photoinduced dipole moment and local electric field were proposed to explain this trend. And the intrinsic dipole moment and defects in CdSe QDs also had an effect on this nonlinear process.

Aspect ratio-related three-photon absorption and mechanism of α-FeOOH nanorods in the near-infrared

Tuning a semiconductor nanomaterial with large three-photon absorption (3PA) cross section in the near infrared and investigating the relationship between the nanostructure and nonlinear optical properties is a challenging topic, which is of significance in potential applications. Here, we report the aspect ratio-related 3PA response of α-FeOOH nanorods (NRs) in the near infrared. Large 3PA cross section at room temperature is achieved as high as ~10(-77) cm(6) s(2) photon(-2) when the distribution of photo-induced and intrinsic surface polarization charges of excitons to both ends of NRs is tuned through the aspect ratio, yielding total enhancement more than three times larger than that of NRs with 12.1 nm diameter.

Bright white-light emission from Ag/SiO2/CdS-ZnS core/shell/shell plasmon couplers

Well-defined plasmon couplers (PCs) that comprise a Ag core overcoated with a SiO(2) shell with controlled thickness, followed by a monolayer of CdS-ZnS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized to modify the emission from trap-rich CdS-ZnS QDs by adjusting the distance between the QDs and Ag nanoparticles (NPs). When the thickness of the SiO(2) shell was 10 nm, because the shell could effectively suppress the non-radiative energy transfer from the semiconductor QDs to the metal NPs and the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the Ag NPs spectrally matched the emission peak of the CdS-ZnS QDs to bring about strong plasmon coupling, optimum enhancements of the surface state emission (SSE) (17 times) and band-edge emission (BEE) (4 times) were simultaneously realized and the SSE to BEE intensity ratio was increased to 55%. As a result, a bright white-light source with 1931 Commission Internationale d'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of (0.32, 0.34) was realized by the superposition of the two emissions. The experimental results from Ag/SiO(2)/CdSe-ZnS and the Ag/SiO(2)/CdS:Mn-ZnS core/shell/shell PCs indicated that suppressing the non-radiative decay rate (k(nr)) was the underlying mechanism for plasmon coupling fluorescence enhancement.