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Doping concentration-dependent photoluminescence properties of Mn-doped Zn–In–S quantum dots

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Abstract

In this report, doping concentration-dependent photoluminescence (PL) properties of Mn-doped ternary Zn–In–S quantum dots (QDs) were studied by using steady-state and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. The QDs PL was firstly significantly intensified with the increasing Mn doping concentration and then decreased after the doping concentration increased up to 7.5 at.%. However, their decay lifetimes exhibit a monotone decrease with Mn doping concentration ranged from 0 to 10 at.%. It can be concluded that the PL intensity was mainly determined by two factors: one was the increased efficiency of energy transfer from host excitons to Mn2+ ion accepter, and the other was the decreased efficiency of the emission from a Mn2+ ion, which was caused by the increased component of exposed Mn2+ ions on QDs surface and the accelerated interaction between adjacent dopants. The competition of above two exciton relaxation dynamics processes determined the trend of the PL intensity, while the latter was responsible for the monotonously decreased lifetime of the Mn2+ ion emission with the increasing Mn doping concentration.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant No. 61106066), Zhejiang Provincial Science Foundation (Grant No. LY14F040001) and Ningbo Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2016A610104).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials, Ningbo University of Technology, Ningbo City, 315016, China

    Sheng Cao, Jinju Zheng, Lin Wang, Weiyou Yang & Minghui Shang

  2. Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Sheng Cao & Chengming Li

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, New Museum Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3RA, UK

    Chencheng Dai

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  1. Sheng Cao
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Cao, S., Zheng, J., Dai, C. et al. Doping concentration-dependent photoluminescence properties of Mn-doped Zn–In–S quantum dots. J Mater Sci 53, 1286–1296 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1598-0

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