Development principles and production of paired PbS quantum dots

¹ Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics, Tezpur University, P.O. Napaam, Dist. Sonitpur, Assam-784 028, India
² Laboratory for Molecular Scale Engineering, 1415 Engineering Dr., Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53706, USA
³ Gauhati University, Gopinath Bordoloi Nagar, Guwahati, Assam-781 014, India

Corresponding author: best@tezu.ernet.in

Received: 11 October 2007
Revised: 19 November 2007
Accepted: 29 November 2007
Published online: 6 February 2008

Abstract

We report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, an inexpensive fabrication procedure for obtaining perfectly coupled PbS quantum dots. Evidence of quantum dot pairing (each, 10–12 nm) was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy, and the stability with aging was checked by dark-current measurements. The method of encapsulating PbS quantum dots in a nontoxic cis-trans polymer is simple, convenient and attractive for reproducible reasons. Such coupled quantum dots are promising to act as qubits which are vital in quantum computers and qubit architecture.