Enhanced trion emission from colloidal quantum dots with photonic crystals by two-photon excitation

For colloidal quantum dots, the ongoing biggest problem is their fluorescence blinking. Until now, there is no generally accepted model for this fluorescence blinking. Here, two-photon excited fluorescence from CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals on silicon nitride photonic crystals is studied using a femtosecond laser. From analysis of the spectra and decay processes, most of the relative trion efficiency is larger than 10%, and the largest relative trion efficiency reaches 46.7%. The photonic crystals enhance the trion emission of CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals, where the enhancement is due to the coupling of the trion emission to the leaky mode of the photonic crystal slab. Moreover, the photonic crystals enhance the Auger-assisted trapping efficiency of electrons/holes to surface states, and then enhance the efficiency of the generations of charge separation and DC electric field, which modifies the trion spectrum. Therefore, a model is present for explaining the mechanism of fluorescence blinking including the effect of the environment.