Atomistic tight-binding calculations of CdSe/CdS core/shell dot-in-hexagonal platelet nanocrystals with interesting electronic structures and optical properties

I theoretically determine the electronic and optical signatures of CdSe/CdS core/shell dot-in-hexagonal platelet nanocrystals with experimentally synthesized dimensions exploiting the atomistic tight-binding theory. With the increasing lateral sizes and thicknesses of the CdS hexagonal platelets, the reduction of excitonic band gaps is ascribed to the quantum confinement consequence. The excitonic band gaps emitting the visible spectra are carried out by CdS shell sizes. The optical characteristic of CdSe/CdS dot-in-hexagonal platelet nanocrystals is advanced when comparing with bare CdSe nanocrystal. The reduction of oscillator strengths, excitonic binding energies and stokes shift with the increasing sizes of CdSe shell is ascribed to the electron-hole wave function overlaps. The key findings from the tight-binding analysis agree well with the experimental observation. Finally, this theoretical study delivers the essential direction to predesign of core/shell dot-in-hexagonal platelet nanocrystals with specific characteristics for various optoelectronic technologies.

Automated summary

This study theoretically determines the electronic and optical signatures of CdSe/CdS core/shell dot-in-hexagonal platelet nanocrystals, showing a reduction in excitonic band gaps with increasing CdS shell sizes and a decrease in oscillator strengths, excitonic binding energies, and stokes shift with increasing CdSe shell sizes. The key findings from the tight-binding analysis agree well with experimental observations, providing essential directions for predesigning core/shell dot-in-hexagonal platelet nanocrystals.