Abstract:

Thermally induced fluctuations in the double-layer potential are shown to be a mechanism contributing to the observed blinking of colloidal semiconductor quantum dots in electrolytic suspensions. By relating the fluctuations to the surface charge density on the quantum dot to fluctuations in the double-layer potential, it is shown that the fluctuation barrier potential has exactly the functional form needed to result in an inverse-power-law distribution for off times. Moreover, analytical results show that the distribution of off times τ_off scales as 1/τ^3/2_off just as previously observed experimentally.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1166/jno.2006.011