The absolute photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) of multilayers of Silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) separated by SiO2 barriers were thoroughly studied as function of the barrier thickness, excitation wavelength, and temperature. By mastering the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition growth, we produce a series of samples with the same size-distribution of SiNCs but variable interlayer barrier distance. These samples enable us to clearly demonstrate that the increase of barrier thickness from ∼1 to larger than 2 nm induces doubling of the PL QY value, which corresponds to the change of number of close neighbors in the hcp structure. The temperature dependence of PL QY suggests that the PL QY changes are due to a thermally activated transport of excitation into non-radiative centers in dark NCs or in the matrix. We estimate that dark NCs represent about 68% of the ensemble of NCs. The PL QY excitation spectra show no significant changes upon changing the barrier thickness and no clear carrier multiplication effects. The dominant effect is the gradual decrease of the PL QY with increasing excitation photon energy.

A comprehensive study of the spectrally resolved photoluminescence (PL) decay kinetics of dodecyl-passivated colloidal silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) is presented. The correct treatment of average decay lifetime is demonstrated. We report on importance to distinguish the external quantum efficiency (QE) from the internal QE. The external QE of the ensemble of Si NCs is measured to be ∼60%, while the internal QE of Si NCs emitting around ∼1.5 eV is evaluated to be near unity. This difference between internal and external QE is attributed to a fraction of “dark” (absorbing but non-emitting) Si NCs in the ensemble. This conclusion is based on the analysis of deconvoluted size-selected decay curves retrieved by the presented mathematical procedure. The homogeneous line-broadening is estimated to be around 180 meV by experimentally challenging single-NC PL measurements. In addition, radiative lifetimes are calculated by the envelope function approximation and confirm the observed exponential increase of lifetime with decreasing emission photon energy.

The absolute photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield (QY) of oleic acid-capped colloidal PbS quantum dots (QDs) in toluene is thoroughly investigated as function of QD size, concentration, excitation photon energy, and conditions of storage. We observed anomalous decrease of QY with decreasing concentration for highly diluted suspensions. The ligand desorption and QD-oxidation are demonstrated to be responsible for this phenomenon. Excess of oleic acid in suspensions makes the QY values concentration-independent over the entire reabsorption-free range. The PL emission is shown to be dominated by surface-related recombinations with some contribution from QD-core transitions. We demonstrate that QD colloidal suspension stability improves with increasing the concentration and size of PbS QDs.

Absorption cross-section (ACS) of silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) is determined via two completely independent approaches: (i) Excitation-intensity-dependent photoluminescence (PL) kinetics under modulated (long square pulses) pumping and (ii) absorbance measured by the photothermal deflection spectroscopy combined with morphology information obtained by the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. This unique comparison reveals consistent ACS values around 10−15 cm2 for violet excitation of SiNCs of about 3–5 nm in diameter and this value is comparable to most of direct band-gap semiconductor nanocrystals; however, it decreases steeply towards longer wavelengths. Moreover, we analyze the PL-modulation technique in detail and propose an improved experimental procedure which enables simpler implementation of this method to determine ACS of various (nano)materials in both solid and liquid states.

Thin layers of silicon nanocrystals (SiNC) in oxide matrix with optimized parameters are fabricated by the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. These materials with SiNC sizes of about 4.5 nm and the SiO 2 barrier thickness of 3 nm reveal external quantum yield (QY) close to 50% which is near to the best chemically synthetized colloidal SiNC. Internal QY is determined using the Purcell effect, i.e. modifying radiative decay rate by the proximity of a high index medium in a special wedge-shape sample. For the first time we performed these experiments at variable temperatures. The complete optical characterization and knowledge of both internal and external QY allow to estimate the spectral distribution of the dark and bright NC populations within the SiNC ensemble. We show that SiNCs emitting at around 1.2–1.3 eV are mostly bright with internal QY reaching 80% at room temperature and being reduced by thermally activated non-radiative processes (below 100 K internal QY approaches 100%). The mechanisms of non-radiative decay are discussed based on their temperature dependence.