Charge carrier identification in tunneling spectroscopy of core-shell nanocrystals

• Published in: Physical review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics Condensed matter and materials physics, 2011-11, Vol.84 (19), p.195133-1 - 195133-8, Article 195133
• Main Authors: Nguyen, T. H., Habinshuti, J., Justo, Y., Gomes, R., Mahieu, G., Godey, S., Nys, J. P., Carrillo, S., Hens, Z., Robbe, O., Turrell, S., Grandidier, B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; or physical chemistry; Theoretical and
• ISSN: 1098-0121; 1550-235X
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.84.195133

Semiconductor PbSe/CdSe core-shell nanocrystals (NCs) in a double barrier tunnel junction have been investigated by means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy at low temperature. From the analysis of the differential conductance peak position as a function of the potential distribution in both potential barriers, we demonstrate a unipolar transport regime for a large amount of NCs. The same charge carriers are injected on both sides of the zero-conductance gap, and the peaks observed at higher energy arise from the charging of the NCs. Similar results are obtained for CdSe/CdS dot-in-rod NCs, indicating that the addition of a shell favors transitions between different charge states rather than single particle excited states. Further characterization of the PbSe/CdSe core-shell NCs by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy reveals that the variations in the transport properties from NC to NC are explained by the occurrence of unprotected PbSe facets that have different orientations in the junction.