Potential well

About: Potential well is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1430 publications have been published within this topic receiving 30812 citations.

Graphene-Like Carbon Nitride Nanosheets for Improved Photocatalytic Activities

Abstract: Graphitic (g)-C3N4 with a layered structure has the potential of forming graphene-like nanosheets with unusual physicochemical properties due to weak van der Waals forces between layers. Herein is shown that g-C3N4 nanosheets with a thickness of around 2 nm can be easily obtained by a simple top-down strategy, namely, thermal oxidation etching of bulk g-C3N4 in air. Compared to the bulk g-C3N4, the highly anisotropic 2D-nanosheets possess a high specific surface area of 306 m2 g-1, a larger bandgap (by 0.2 eV), improved electron transport ability along the in-plane direction, and increased lifetime of photoexcited charge carriers because of the quantum confinement effect. As a consequence, the photocatalytic activities of g-C3N4 nanosheets have been remarkably improved in terms of OH radical generation and photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Semiconductor Nanocrystals: Structure, Properties, and Band Gap Engineering

Abstract: Semiconductor nanocrystals are tiny light-emitting particles on the nanometer scale. Researchers have studied these particles intensely and have developed them for broad applications in solar energy conversion, optoelectronic devices, molecular and cellular imaging, and ultrasensitive detection. A major feature of semiconductor nanocrystals is the quantum confinement effect, which leads to spatial enclosure of the electronic charge carriers within the nanocrystal. Because of this effect, researchers can use the size and shape of these “artificial atoms” to widely and precisely tune the energy of discrete electronic energy states and optical transitions. As a result, researchers can tune the light emission from these particles throughout the ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared spectral ranges. These particles also span the transition between small molecules and bulk crystals, instilling novel optical properties such as carrier multiplication, single-particle blinking, and spectral diffusi...

Theory of the quantum confinement effect on excitons in quantum dots of indirect-gap materials

Abstract: The quantum confinement effect on excitons in quantum dots of indirect-gap materials is investigated and a mechanism that induces an indirect-to-direct conversion of the character of the optical transition is clarified. The exciton transition energy and the exciton binding energy are calculated and found to be in good agreement with experimental results on Si and Ge nanostructures. The large exciton binding energy in Si and Ge quantum dots suggests that the photoluminescence from these nanostructures is of excitonic origin even at room temperature. The estimated radiative lifetime of excitons is strongly size dependent and varies from nanosecond to millisecond corresponding to the diameter from \ensuremath{\sim}10 to \ensuremath{\sim}30 \AA{}. These theoretical results suggest strongly the importance of the quantum confinement effect in the luminescence processes of porous Si.

Band gap engineering of amorphous silicon quantum dots for light-emitting diodes

Abstract: Amorphous silicon quantum dots (a-Si QDs), which show a quantum confinement effect were grown in a silicon nitride film by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Red, green, blue, and white photoluminescence were observed from the a-Si QD structures by controlling the dot size. An orange light-emitting diode (LED) was fabricated using a-Si QDs with a mean size of 2.0 nm. The turn-on voltage was less than 5 V. An external quantum efficiency of 2×10−3% was also demonstrated. These results show that a LED using a-Si QDs embedded in the silicon nitride film is superior in terms of electrical and optical properties to other Si-based LEDs.