Journal Article

Spontaneous Superlattice Formation in Nanorods Through Partial Cation Exchange

Robinson, Richard D, Alivisatos, A. Paul, Erdonmez, Can K, Sadtler, Bryce, Wang, Lin-Wang, Demchenko, Denis O

2007

Overview

Lattice-mismatch strains are widely known to control nanoscale pattern formation in heteroepitaxy, but such effects have not been exploited in colloidal nanocrystal growth. We demonstrate a colloidal route to synthesizing CdS-Ag₂S nanorod superlattices through partial cation exchange. Strain induces the spontaneous formation of periodic structures. Ab initio calculations of the interfacial energy and modeling of strain energies show that these forces drive the self-organization of the superlattices. The nanorod superlattices exhibit high stability against ripening and phase mixing. These materials are tunable near-infrared emitters with potential applications as nanometer-scale optoelectronic devices.

• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science,The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subject: Cation exchange / Cation exchanging / Colloids / Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties / Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties / Crystal lattices / Energy / Exact sciences and technology / Histograms / Line spectra / Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties / Materials / Materials science / mixing / Multilayers, superlattices / Nanocrystals / Nanorods / Nanostructure / Nanotechnology / Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation / Optical properties of low-dimensional, mesoscopic, and nanoscale materials and structures / Physics / Quantum dots / Spontaneous / Strain / Superlattices / Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties)