Surface Passivation and Photoluminescence of Mn-Doped ZnS Nanocrystals

Abstract EN

Enhanced photoluminescence (PL) is reported from Mn-doped ZnS nanocrystals (NCs) capped with ZnS (ZnS:Mn/ZnS core-shell NCs) and thioglycolic acid (TGA) (ZnS:Mn/ZnS core-shell NCs dispersed in an alkaline TGA solution).

The NCs were prepared using a reverse micelle route.

Comparing with initial ZnS:Mn core NCs, the ZnS:Mn/ZnS core-shell NCs exhibit much stronger orange PL (~580 nm).

This is presumably the result of effective passivation of quenching ZnS:Mn NCs surface states by a pure ZnS shell.

As for TGA-capped ZnS:Mn/ZnS core-shell NCs, the parallel decrease of a defect-related emission of ZnS is associated with the formation of a shell surface layer of TGA-Zn complexes.

In summary, the combination of ZnS shells with TGA ligands was demonstrated to yield ZnS:Mn NCs with narrow size distribution and intense PL.