Exploiting the optical and luminescence characteristic of quantum dots for optical device fabrication

One can design a robust optical device by engineering the optical band gap of the quantum dots (QDs) owing to their size-tunable quantum confinement effect. To do this, understanding the optical effects of QDs and composite materials is crucial. In this context, various sizes (2.8–4.2 nm) of CdSe QDs–PMMA nanocomposite are fabricated in a two-step process and their absorbance, luminescence and optical constants studied systematically. The ellipsometry spectroscopic analysis exhibits the heterogeneous medium feature of Ψ value and also the measured refractive index (1.51–1.59) values are increased with decreased band gap (2.24–2.10 eV). The observed red shift in the UV–Vis and photoluminescence spectra is indicative of early stage CdSe QD followed by a nucleation process of bigger size QD. In addition, the growth kinetics of the reaction and the band gap of the QDs are evaluated with respect to the time to testify the colloidal QDs formation. The thickness and QD composition of the nanocomposite thin films calculated by effective medium approximation are 100 nm and 8–12%, respectively. Morphology and structural feature transmission electron microscopy study of the fabricated nanocomposite demonstrated that spherical CdSe QDs are well dispersed in PMMA.