Abstract

Using semiconductor nanocrystals one can produce extremely strong spatial confinement of electronic wave functions not accessible with other types of nanostructures. One consequence of this effect is a significant enhancement in carrier-carrier interactions that lead to a number of novel physical phenomena including ultrafast mutiexciton decay due to Auger recombination and efficient generation of multiple electron-hole pairs by single photons via carrier multiplication. In this talk, I will discuss the implications of ultrafast Auger decay for lasing applications of nanocrystals and several recent approaches developed in our group for resolving this problem by engineering carrier-carrier interactions in various types of heterostructured nanocrystals. I will also review the current status of carrier-multiplication research including experimental challenges in studies of this phenomenon, the role of extraneous effects, the competing energy relaxation channels, and implications of carrier multiplication in solar photovoltaics.