Journal
NANO LETTERS
Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages 402-408Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nl3035674
Keywords
Blinking; quantum dot; nanorod; nanowire; organic dye; recombination centers
Categories
Funding
- Institute for Theoretical Sciences
- Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences
- National Science Foundation via the NSF-NIRT [ECS-0609249]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A variety of optically active nanoscale objects show extremely long correlations in the fluctuations of fluorescence intensity (blinking). Here we performed a systematic study to quantitatively estimate the power spectral dark density (PSD) of the fluorescence trajectories of colloidal and self-assembled quantum dots (QDs), nanorods (NRs), nanowires (NWs), and organic molecules. We report for the first time a statistically correct method of PSD estimation suitable for these systems. Our method includes a detailed analysis of the confidence intervals. The striking similarity in the spectra of these nanoscale systems, including even a nonblinking quantum dot investigated by Wang and collaborators (Nature 2009, 459, 685-689), is powerful evidence for the existence of a universal physical mechanism underlying the blinking phenomenon in all of these fluorophores (Frantsuzov et al. Nat. Phys. 2008, 4, 519-522). In this paper we show that the features of this universal mechanism can be captured phenomenologically by the multiple recombination center model (MRC) we suggested recently for explaining single colloidal QD intermittency. Within the framework of the MRCs we qualitatively explain all of the important features of fluorescence intensity fluctuations for a broad spectrum of nanoscale emitters.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available