Stress-induced change of ground-state energy of a semiconductor core-shell nanocrystal: Effect of mismatch strain and hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

In this work, we study the effect of mismatch strain for coherent interface between the core and the shell of a Type I core/shell quantum dot (QD) on the ground-state energy of a particle in the core/shell QD under the framework of linear elasticity. Closed-form solution of the energy of the particle at ground state for the core and the shell being cubic structure is obtained, and the first order solution of the energy of the particle at ground state for the core and the shell being wurtzite structure is derived. The numerical results show that the energy change at ground state is proportional to hydrostatic stress and nonlinearly increases with the increase of the ratio of the shell thickness to the core radius.