From In Situ Characterization to Process Control of Quantum Dot Systems

Quantum confined semiconductor nanoparticles (quantum dots, QDs) are promising candidates for various applications in emerging fields like electronics, solar cells, sensors and diagnostics. However, a larger scale production of QDs at high product quality is still missing. One of the key requirements to address this issue in the near future was identified to be a fast and in situ applicable characterization method. Suitable characterization requires knowledge on the full shape of the particle size distributions (PSDs) under investigation. Thus, determination of a mean particle size together with the width of the PSD is not sufficient. In the following, a method will be presented that allows the derivation of arbitrary shaped PSDs for QDs with direct band gap based on their optical absorbance spectra. After validation of the technique by means of ZnO nanoparticles the transfer of the concept to other QD materials like PbS and PbSe will be proven. Therefore we will extend our methodology and show how our approach can be used to derive spectral properties like the size dependent band gap energy. This is realized by proper calibration of the calculation results against PSDs determined by an independent analysis technique like transmission electron microscopy (TEM). (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.