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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Seeded Synthesis of CdSe/CdS Rod and Tetrapod Nanocrystals
Published on: December 11, 2013
Seeing Multiexcitons through Sample Inhomogeneity: Band-Edge Biexciton Structure in CdSe Nanocrystals Revealed by
Hélène Seiler1, Samuel Palato1, Colin Sonnichsen1
1Department of Chemistry , McGill University , Montreal , Quebec H3A 0B8 , Canada.
Abstract:
The electronic structure of multiexcitons significantly impacts the performance of nanostructures in lasing and light-emitting applications. However, these multiexcitons remain poorly understood due to their complexity arising from many-body physics. Standard transient-absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies are unable to unambiguously distinguish effects of sample inhomogeneity from exciton-biexciton interactions. Here, we exploit the energy and time resolution of two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy to access the electronic structure of the band-edge biexciton in colloidal CdSe quantum dots. By removing effects of inhomogeneities, we show that the band-edge biexciton structure must consist of a discrete manifold of electronic states. Furthermore, the biexciton states within the manifold feature distinctive binding energies. Our findings have direct implications for optical gain thresholds and efficiency droop in light-emitting devices and provide experimental measures of many-body physics in nanostructures.
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