Topic: quantum dots

Model semiconductor nanocrystal nucleation and growth using density-functional calculations, population rate equations and kinetic Monte Carlo. Investigate how surface chemistry and growth conditions select nanoplatelets, magic-sized crystallites and quantum dots, in collaboration with experimentalists.

Aleksey Yekimov, Louis Brus and Moungi Bawendi trace the discovery and chemical development of quantum dots: semiconductor particles whose electronic and optical behaviour changes with their size. Yekimov examines confinement effects in small crystals embedded in glass, while Brus develops the study of semiconductor particles dispersed in solution. Bawendi explains the synthetic challenge of producing high-quality nanocrystals with controlled dimensions and how more reliable preparation made their properties experimentally and practically useful. The lectures bring together the physics of conf