CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods nanocrystals fast blinking dynamics

TL;DR

This study investigates the blinking behavior of CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods nanocrystals at the single-particle level, revealing how geometry influences fluorescence stability and surface trap effects.

Contribution

It provides detailed analysis of blinking dynamics and shows the impact of shell thickness and shape on fluorescence stability in colloidal nanocrystals.

Findings

Short mean duration of bright periods (10- hundreds of microseconds).

Shell aspect ratio affects blinking behavior.

Surface traps influence fluorescence stability.

Abstract

The blinking dynamics of colloidal core-shell CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods is studied in detail at the single particle level. Analyzing the autocorrelation function of the fluorescence intensity, we demonstrate that these nanoemitters are characterized by a short value of the mean duration of bright periods (ten to a few hundreds of microseconds). The comparison of the results obtained for samples with different geometries shows that not only the shell thickness is crucial but also the shape of the dot- in-rods. Increasing the shell aspect ratio results in shorter bright periods suggesting that surface traps impact the stability of the fluorescence intensity.