New Process Developed at MIT Could Enable Better LED Displays, Solar Cells and Biosensors

Researchers at Department of Physics and Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, have found ways of making defect-free patterns of nanocrystal films where the shape and position of the films are controlled with nanoscale resolution, potentially opening up a significant area for research and possible new applications.

Images of nanopatterned films of nano crystalline material produced by the MIT research team. Each row shows a different pattern produced on films of either cadmium selenide (top and bottom) or a combination of zinc cadmium selenide and zinc cadmium sulfur (middle row). The three images in each row are made using different kinds of microscopes: left to right, scanning electron microscope, optical (showing real-color fluorescence), and atomic force microscope. © Mentzel et al, from Nano Letters

"We’ve been trying to understand how electrons move in arrays of these nanocrystals," which has been difficult with limited control over the formation of the arrays, says physicist Marc Kastner, the Donner Professor of Science, dean of MIT’s School of Science and senior author of a paper published online in the journal Nano Letters.

Tamar S. Mentzel, Darcy D. Wanger, Nirat Ray, Brian J. Walker, David Strasfeld, Moungi G. Bawendi, and Marc A. Kastner: Nanopatterned Electrically Conductive Films of Semiconductor Nanocrystals, In: Nano Letters, Volume 12, Issue 8, August 8, 2012, Pages 4404-4408, DOI:10.1021/nl3022863: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl3022863

http://web.mit.edu/physics/index.html http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/kastner_marc.html

Bawendi group at the MIT Department of Chemistry: http://nanocluster.mit.edu/