We have begun assessing the toxicology of commercially available fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals that contain toxic metals. We have found that: 1) Fluorescence of the aquatic invertebrate Cerodaphnia dubia increased significantly after a 4 hr exposure to 200 ppt nanocrystals. Changes in fluorescence were time and dose dependent. 2) 48-h acute toxicology endpoint assessment of these nanoc...

The unique optical properties, such as size-tunable absorption and emission, caused semiconductor nanocrystals to attract a great deal of interest for recent technological developments. For the evaluation of semiconductor nanocrystals as new materials for various applications like optoelectronic devices, knowledge of the structure-property relationships is indispensable, but still presents a ch...

Multiphoton absorption processes enable many technologically important applications, such as in vivo imaging, photodynamic therapy and optical limiting, and so on. Specifically, higher-order nonlinear absorption such as five-photon absorption offers significant advantages of greater spatial confinement, increased penetration depth, reduced autofluorescence, enhanced sensitivity and improved res...

Extensive study of photorefractive polymeric composites photosensitized with semiconductor nanocrystals has yielded data indicating that the inclusion of such nanocrystals enhances the charge-carrier mobility, and subsequently leads to a reduction in the photorefractive response time. Unfortunately, the included nanocrystals may also act as a source of deep traps, resulting in diminished diffra...

We report on the application of Raman scattering as a probe to study 4-mercaptopyridine (4-Mpy) surface-modified CuO nanocrystals. Enhanced Raman scattering from 4-Mpy adsorbed on CuO nanocrystals was observed. The Raman signals displayed 10(2) enhancement compared with those of 4-Mpy in solution. We compared the Raman spectra of 4-Mpy molecules adsorbed on CuO nanocrystals and Ag, Cu substrate...

We report a systematic investigation of the size dependence of negative trion (T(-)) Auger recombination rates in free-standing colloidal CdSe nanocrystals. Colloidal n-type CdSe nanocrystals of various radii have been prepared photochemically, and their trion decay dynamics have been measured using time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. Trion Auger time constants spanning 3 orders of ma...

Localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) enable tailoring of the optical response of nanomaterials through their free carrier concentration, morphology, and dielectric environment. Recent efforts to expand the spectral range of usable LSPR frequencies into the infrared successfully demonstrated LSPRs in doped semiconductor nanocrystals. Despite silicon's importance for electronic and photon...

In this paper, we summarize our results on the effect of changing size and shape of semiconductor and metallic nanocrystals. The change in size (from 3.5 to 1.1 nm) and shape (from spherical to rod) of CdSe nanocrystals is found to affect both their optical and nonradiative properties. In gold quasi-spherical nanocrystals, results on the dependence of the electron-phonon relaxation of the surro...

Molecular recognition is one of the most important phenomena in Chemistry and Biology. Here we present a new way of enantiomeric molecular recognition using intrinsically chiral semiconductor nanocrystals as assays. Real-time confocal microscopy studies supported by circular dichroism spectroscopy data and theoretical modelling indicate an ability of left-handed molecules of cysteine and, to a ...