Formation of Colloidal In(As,P) Quantum Dots Active in the Short-Wave Infrared, Promoting Growth through Temperature Ramps

Colloidal InAs quantum dots (QDs) are widely studied as a printable optoelectronic material for short-wave infrared (SWIR) that is not restricted by regulations on hazardous substances. Such applications, however, require synthetic procedures that yield QDs with adjustable sizes at the end of the reaction. Here, we show that such one-size-one-batch protocols can be realized through temperature profiles that involve a rapid transition from a lower injection temperature to a higher reaction temperature. By expediting the transition to the reaction temperature and reducing the overall synthesis concentration, we can tune QD sizes from 4.5 to 10 nm, the latter corresponding to a band gap transition at 1600 nm. We argue that the temperature ramps provide a more distinct separation between nucleation at low temperature and growth at high temperature such that larger QDs are obtained by minimizing the nucleation time. The synthetic procedures introduced here will strongly promote the development of a SWIR optoelectronic technology based on InAs QDs, while the use of temperature profiles to steer a colloidal synthesis can find applications well beyond the specific case of InAs QDs.