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Electrical control over the magnetic states of doped semiconductor nanostructures could enable new spin-based information processing technologies. To this end, extensive research has recently been devoted to examination of carrier-mediated magnetic ordering effects in substrate-supported quantum dots at cryogenic temperatures, with carriers introduced transiently by photon absorption. The relatively weak interactions found between dopants and charge carriers have suggested that gated magnetism in quantum dots will be limited to cryogenic temperatures. Here, we report the observation of a large, reversible, room-temperature magnetic response to charge state in free-standing colloidal ZnO nanocrystals doped with Mn(2+) ions. Injected electrons activate new ferromagnetic Mn(2+)-Mn(2+) interactions that are strong enough to overcome antiferromagnetic coupling between nearest-neighbour dopants, making the full magnetic moments of all dopants observable. Analysis shows that this large effect occurs in spite of small pairwise electron-Mn(2+) exchange energies, because of competing electron-mediated ferromagnetic interactions involving distant Mn(2+) ions in the same nanocrystal.

A combined experimental and theoretical study is conducted on a series of model compounds in order to assess the combined role of branching and charge symmetry on absorption, photoluminescence, and twophoton absorption (TPA) properties. The main issue of this study is to examine how branching of quadrupolar chomophores can lead to different consequences as compared to branching of dipolar chromophores. Hence, three structurally related π-conjugated quadrupolar chromophores symmetrically substituted with donor end groups and one branched structure built from the assembly of three quadrupolar branches via a common donor moiety are used as model compounds. Their photophysical properties are studied using UV-vis spectroscopy, and the TPA spectra are determined through two-photon excited fluorescence experiments using femtosecond pulses in the 500-1000 nm range. Experimental studies are complemented by theoretical calculations. The applied theoretical methodology is based on time-dependent density functional theory, the Frenkel exciton model, and analysis in terms of the natural transition orbitals of relevant electronic states. Theory reveals that a symmetrical intramolecular charge transfer from the terminal donating groups to the middle of the molecule takes place in all quadrupolar chromophores upon photoexcitation. In contrast, branching via a central electron-donating triphenylamine moiety breaks the quadrupolar symmetry of the branches. Consequently, all Frank-Condon excited states have significant asymmetric multidimensional charge-transfer character upon excitation. Subsequent vibrational relaxation of the branched chromophore in the excited state leads to a localization of the excitation and fluorescence stemming from a single branch. As opposed to what was earlier observed when dipolar chromophores are branched via the same common electron-donating moiety, we find only a slight enhancement of the maximum TPA response of the branched compound with respect to an additive contribution of its quadrupolar branches. In contrast, substantial modifications of the spectral shape are observed. This is attributed to the subtle interplay of interbranch electronic coupling and asymmetry caused by branching.

We review electronic structure calculations of finite-length semiconducting carbon nanotubes using time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and the time dependent Hartree-Fock (TD-HF) approach coupled with semi-empirical AM1 and ZINDO Hamiltonians. We specifically focus on the energy splitting, relative ordering, and localization properties of optically active (bright) and optically forbidden (dark) states from the lowest excitonic band of the nanotubes. These excitonic states are very important in competing radiative and non-radiative processes in these systems. Our analysis of excitonic transition density matrices demonstrates that pure DFT functionals overdelocalize excitons making an electron-hole pair unbound; consequently, excitonic features are not presented in this method. In contrast, the pure HF and AM1 calculations overbind excitons, inaccurately predicting the lowest energy state as a bright exciton. Changing the AM1 with the ZINDO Hamiltonian in TD-HF calculations predicts the bright exciton as the second state after the dark one. However, in contrast to AM1 calculations, the diameter dependence of the excitation energies obtained by ZINDO does not follow the experimental trends. Finally, the TD-DFT approach incorporating hybrid functionals with a moderate portion of the long-range HF exchange, such as B3LYP, has the most generality and predictive capacity providing a sufficiently accurate description of excitonic structure in finite-size nanotubes. These methods characterize four important lower exciton bands: the lowest state is dark, the upper band is bright, and the two other dark and nearly degenerate excitons lie in between. Although the calculated energy splittings between the lowest dark and the bright excitons are relatively large ( approximately 0.1 eV), the dense excitonic manifold below the bright exciton allows for fast non-radiative relaxation leading to the rapid population of the lowest dark exciton. This rationalizes the low luminescence efficiency in nanotubes.

The interaction between CdSe nanocrystals (NCs) passivated with trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) ligands and a series of Ru-polypyridine complexes-[Ru(bpy)(3)](PF(6))(2) (1), [Ru(bpy)(2)(mcb)](PF(6))(2) (2), [Ru(bpy)(mcb)(2)](BarF)(2) (3), and [Ru(tpby)(2)(dcb)](PF(6))(2) (4) (where bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, mcb = 4-carboxy-4'-methyl-2,2'-bipyridine, tbpy = 4,4'-di-tert-butyl-2,2'-bipyridine; dcb = 4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine, and BarF = tetrakis[3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]borate)-was studied by attenuated total reflectance FTIR (ATR-FTIR) and modeled using density functional theory (DFT). ATR-FTIR studies reveal that when the solid film of NCs is exposed to an acetonitrile solution of 2, 3, or 4, the complexes chemically bind to the NC surface through their carboxylic acid groups, replacing TOPO ligands. The corresponding spectral changes are observed on a time scale of minutes. In the case of 2, the FTIR spectral changes clearly show that the complex adsorption is associated with a loss of proton from the carboxylic acid group. In the case of 3 and 4, deprotonation of the anchoring group is also detected, while the second, "spectrator" carboxylic acid group remains protonated. The observed energy difference between the symmetric, ν(s), and asymmetric, ν(as), stretch of the deprotonated carboxylic acid group suggests that the complexes are bound to the NC surface via a bridging mode. The results of DFT modeling are consistent with the experiment, showing that for the deprotonated carboxylic acid group the coupling to two Cd atoms via a bridging mode is the energetically most favorable mode of attachment for all nonequivalent NC surface sites and that the attachment of the protonated carboxylic acid is thermodynamically significantly less favorable.

Linear response time-dependent hybrid density functional theory has been applied for the first time to describe optical transitions characteristic of Co 2+ -and Mn 2+ -doped ZnO quantum dots (QDs) with sizes up to 300 atoms (∼1.8 nm diam) and to investigate QD size effects on the absorption spectra. Particular attention is given to charge-transfer (CT or "photoionization") excited states. For both dopants, CT transitions are calculated to appear at sub-band-gap energies and extend into the ZnO excitonic region. CT transitions involving excitation of dopant d electrons to the ZnO conduction band occur lowest in energy, and additional CT transitions corresponding to promotion of ZnO valence band electrons to the dopant d orbitals are found at higher energies, consistent with experimental results. The CT energies are found to depend on the QD diameter. Analysis of excited-state electron and hole density distributions shows that, for both CT types, the electron and hole are localized to some extent around the impurity ion, which results in "heavier" photogenerated carriers than predicted from simple effective mass considerations. In addition to CT transitions, the Co 2+ -doped ZnO QDs also exhibit characteristic d-d excitations whose experimental energies are reproduced well and do not depend on the size of the QD.

Changes in the ground and excited state electronic structure of the [Ru(bpy)(3)](2+) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) complex induced by functionalization of bpy ligands with carboxyl and methyl groups in their protonated and deprotonated forms are studied experimentally using absorption and emission spectroscopy and theoretically using density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent DFT (TDDFT). The introduction of the carboxyl groups shifts the metal-to-ligand-charge-transfer (MLCT) absorption and emission bands to lower energies in functionalized complexes. Our calculations show that this red-shift is due to the stabilization of the lowest unoccupied orbitals localized on the substituted ligands, while the energies of the highest occupied orbitals localized on the Ru-center are not significantly affected. Consistent with previously observed trends in optical spectra of related Ru(II) complexes, deprotonation of the carboxyl groups results in a blue shift in the absorption and phosphorescence spectra. The effect originates from interplay of positive and negative solvatochromism in the protonated and deprotonated complexes, respectively. This results in more delocalized character of the electron transition orbitals in the deprotonated species and a strong destabilization of the three lowest unoccupied orbitals localized on the substituted and unsubstituted ligands, all of which contribute to the lowest-energy optical transitions. We also found that owing to the complexity of the excited state potential energy surfaces, the calculated lowest triplet excited state can be either weakly optically allowed (3)MLCT or optically forbidden Ru (3)d-d transition depending on the initial wavefunction guess used in TDDFT calculations.

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