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Updated: Jun 8, 2026
High Resolution Phonon-assisted Quasi-resonance Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Published on: June 28, 2016
Revealing the exciton fine structure of PbSe nanocrystal quantum dots using optical spectroscopy in high magnetic
R D Schaller1, S A Crooker, D A Bussian
1Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Abstract:
We measure the photoluminescence lifetime τ of excitons in colloidal PbSe nanocrystals (NCs) at low temperatures to 270 mK and in high magnetic fields to 15 T. For all NCs, τ increases sharply below 10 K but saturates by 500 mK. In contrast to the usual picture of well-separated "bright" and "dark" exciton states (found, e.g., in CdSe NCs), these dynamics fit remarkably well to a system having two exciton states with comparable--but small--oscillator strengths that are separated by only 300-900 μeV depending on NC size. Importantly, magnetic fields reduce τ below 10 K, consistent with field-induced mixing between the two states. Magnetic-circular dichroism studies reveal exciton g factors from 2-5, and magnetophotoluminescence shows >10% circularly polarized emission.
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