Award Abstract #0601919 International Research Fellowship Program (IRFP): Synthesis and Properties of Multi-functional Magnet-Semiconductor Nanocrystals
The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support an eighteen-month research fellowship by Dr. Aaron E. Saunders to work with Prof. Uri Banin at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Support for this project comes from the Africa, Near East, South Asia (ANESA) Program.
Inorganic nanocrystals - tiny metal or semiconductor particles composed of a few hundred to a few thousand atoms - have emerged over the past two decades as a new class of materials which provide researchers with the ability to explore the effects of size and shape in quantum-confined systems. Very recently, there has been an interest in synthesizing "multi-functional" or "hybrid" nanocrystals, which combine domains of different materials together in a controlled way to form a single nanostructure. One of the key challenges in synthesizing hybrid nanostructures is understanding how to interface materials which may have very different crystal structures, thermal stability, and chemical reactivity. A secondary challenge is to then identify and understand how the properties of the individual components may lead to the emergence of new properties when joined together at the nanoscale. This research is focused on synthesizing new nanocrystals which have both magnetic and semiconducting components, understanding their properties, and controlling their assembly to integrate them into electronic and light-emitting devices. One promising synthetic route involves selectively growing magnetic nanocrystals onto the tips of semiconducting nanorods. Understanding how to tailor the reaction chemistry for different materials, and examining the structure at the interface between the domains of the magnet/semiconductor hybrid nanocrystals, provides valuable information that can then be applied to develop other types of multi-functional systems. Semiconductor nanorod films have been suggested as useful components in electronic, optical, and photovoltaic devices, particularly when all the rods are oriented in the same direction. Attaching magnetic field-responsive nanocrystals to the nanorod tips should provide a method to orient the hybrid nanorods over long distances (a few centimeters) when they are deposited in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The optical properties of these oriented films can be studied using polarized spectroscopy, and examined as possibilities for producing polarized nanorod lasers.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
(Showing: 1 - 3 of 3).
Costi, R; Saunders, AE; Elmalem, E; Salant, A; Banin, U.
"Visible light-induced charge retention and photocatalysis with hybrid CdSe-Au nanodumbbells,"
NANO LETTERS,
v.8,
2008,
p. 637
- 641.
Saunders, AE; Popov, I; Banin, U.
"Synthesis of hybrid CdS-Au colloidal nanostructures,"
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B,
v.110,
2006,
p. 25421
- 25429.
Saunders, AE; Popov, I; Banin, U.
"Synthesis and characterization of organic-soluble Ag/AgBr dimer nanocrystals,"
ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ANORGANISCHE UND ALLGEMEINE CHEMIE,
v.633,
2007,
p. 2414
- 2419.
(Showing: 1 - 3 of 3).
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