Spectral and kinetic properties of silver sulfide quantum dots in an external electric field

Abstract

The effect of an external electric field on the luminescence characteristics of silver sulfide nanoparticles embedded in a film based on an optically passive dielectric matrix has been studied. The luminescence characteristics were studied using methods of optical and time-resolved spectroscopy involving the time-correlated single-photon counting technique. The morphology of the nanoparticles was studied using transmission electron microscopy. It was shown that in an external electric field, an increase in the intensity of the recombination luminescence band is observed for silver sulfide nanoparticles, together with an increase in the electronic relaxation rate. This effect is explained by the fact that the electric field enhances the transport of free holes to electron traps which are radiative recombination centers. The observed effects indicate that silver sulfide nanoparticles can be effectively used as active layers of organic lightemitting diodes, where an external field of the order of 500 kV/cm will not lead to a deterioration in their operating luminescence characteristics.

Keywords

• semiconductor nanoparticles
• silver sulfide
• recombination luminescence
• luminescence decays
• external electric field