Fluorescence intermittency of silicon nanocrystals and other quantum dots: A unified two-dimensional diffusion-controlled reaction model

Abstract

We present a unified model involving two-dimensional diffusion-controlled reactions of both slow and fast reaction coordinates to elucidate the dynamic origin of fluorescence intermittency observed not just in quantum dots but also in organic chromphores and biomolecules. This improved model also solves the puzzling behavior of Si nanocrystals which display an unusually large m (exceeding 2) for the power-law decay of t(-m) and provides remedies for the deficiencies in existing models.