Nanocrystal Diffusion Doping

A diffusion-based synthesis of doped colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals is demonstrated. This approach involves thermodynamically controlled addition of both impurity cations and host anions to preformed seed nanocrystals under equilibrium conditions, rather than kinetically controlled doping during growth. This chemistry allows thermodynamic crystal compositions to be prepared without sacrificing other kinetically trapped properties such as shape, size, or crystallographic phase. This doping chemistry thus shares some similarities with cation-exchange reactions, but proceeds without the loss of host cations and excels at the introduction of relatively unreactive impurity ions that have not been previously accessible using cation exchange. Specifically, we demonstrate the preparation of Cd1–x Mn x Se (0 ≤ x ≤ ∼0.2) nanocrystals with narrow size distribution, unprecedentedly high Mn2+ content, and very large magneto-optical effects by diffusion of Mn2+ into seed CdSe nanocrystals grown by hot injection. Controlling the solution and lattice chemical potentials of Cd2+ and Mn2+ allows Mn2+ diffusion into the internal volumes of the CdSe nanocrystals with negligible Ostwald ripening, while retaining the crystallographic phase (wurtzite or zinc blende), shape anisotropy, and ensemble size uniformity of the seed nanocrystals. Experimental results for diffusion doping of other nanocrystals with other cations are also presented that indicate this method may be generalized, providing access to a variety of new doped semiconductor nanostructures not previously attainable by kinetic routes or cation exchange.