Electronic structure in hybrid nanocomposit

Abstract

Modern optoelectronic devices based on hybrid nanocomposite thin films composed of inorganic colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) embedded in an organic conjugated polymer have attracted much scientific attention. The CQDs are solution phase processed nanostructure which are coated with a surface ligand material that is comprised of short, organic molecules to prevent the CQDs from aggregation when placed in solution. These surface ligand materials behave as a thin, insulating layer that has been shown to prevent efficient transfer of excited carriers into and out of the CQD. Therefore, it is important to understand the effect that the surface ligand material has on the optical properties of the nanocomposite materials in order to design more efficient hybrid nanocomposite optoelectronic devices. In this paper, we present a method for calculating the electronic structure such as intraband energy levels and wave functions for CQDs in a nanocomposite thin film structure. The model is verified by comparing the results to reported data in literature. The model which is based on matrix method, causes simplicity in calculation and can easily be applied for more complicated structures.