Abstract
In optics, when polychromatic light is filtered by an optical filter, the monochromaticity of the light can be improved. In this work, we reported that Ag dopant atoms could be used as an optical filter for nanosized Mn:ZnSe quantum dots (QDs). If no Ag doping, aqueous Mn:ZnSe QDs have low monochromaticity due to coexisting of strong ZnSe band gap emission, ZnSe trap emission, and Mn dopant emission. After doping of Ag into QDs, ZnSe band gap and ZnSe trap emissions can be filtered, leaving only Mn dopant emission with improved monochromaticity. The mechanism for the optical filtering effect of Ag was investigated. The results indicate that the doping of Ag will introduce a new faster deactivation process from ZnSe conduction band to Ag energy level, leading to less electrons deactived via ZnSe band gap emission and ZnSe trap emission. As a result, only Mn dopant emission is left.
Highlights
Because of the low toxicity and strong luminescence, Mn doped ZnSe quantum dots (QDs) have been regarded as a promising substitution for Cd-contained QDs which are the workhorse in QD family in the recent two decades[7,8,9,10]
We showed that the low monochromaticity of aqueous Mn:ZnSe QDs can be improved by co-doping of non-irradiative Ag inside QDs
Mn co-doped ZnSe QDs and Mn doped ZnSe QDs were prepared by a nucleation doping strategy
Summary
Because of the low toxicity and strong luminescence, Mn doped ZnSe QDs have been regarded as a promising substitution for Cd-contained QDs which are the workhorse in QD family in the recent two decades[7,8,9,10]. We showed that the low monochromaticity of aqueous Mn:ZnSe QDs can be improved by co-doping of non-irradiative Ag inside QDs. For the first time, we observed an optical filtering effect in nanosized QDs. Namely the doping of Ag can filter the emissions from ZnSe band gap and ZnSe trap, www.nature.com/scientificreports/. As far as we know, previous works about co-doped ZnSe mainly focused on Cu and Mn co-doped ZnSe QDs with white light emission. In that case, both Cu and Mn dopants act as irradiative centers[19,21], and no optical filtering effect is observed.
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