Charge Transport Modulation in PbSe Nanocrystal Solids by Au-x Ag1-x Nanoparticle Doping

Nanocrystal (NC) solids are an exciting class of materials, whose physical properties are tunable by choice of the NCs as well as the strength of the interparticle coupling. One can consider these NCs as artificial atoms in analogy to the formation of condensed matter from atoms. Akin to atomic doping, the doping of a semiconducting NC solid with impurity NCs can drastically alter its electronic properties. A high degree of complexity is possible in these artificial structures by adjusting the size, shape, and composition of the building blocks, which enables designer materials with targeted properties. Here, we present the doping of the PbSe NC solids with a series of Au-x Ag1-x alloy nanoparticles (NPs). A combination of temperature-dependent electrical conductance and Seebeck coefficient measurements and room-temperature Hall effect measurements demonstrates that the incorporation of metal NPs both modifies the charge carrier density of the NC solids and introduces energy barriers for charge transport. These studies point to charge carrier injection from the metal NPs into the PbSe NC matrix. The charge carrier density and charge transport dynamics in the doped NC solids are adjustable in a wide range by employing the Au-x Ag1-x NP with different Au:Ag ratio as dopants. This doping strategy could be of great interest for thermoelectric applications taking advantage of the energy filtering effect introduced by the metal NPs.