Manipulating the charging energy of nanocrystal arrays

Manipulation of inter-nanocrystal coupling from insulating to metallic states has been achieved through systematic variation of ligand type. The development of mild thermal annealing process for exploring the collective response of as-deposited CoPt₃ nanocrystal quantum dot solids maintaining the integrity of the individual nanocrystals were analyzed. Manipulating the electronic properties of these quantum dot solids through combined synthesis and processing techniques offers an important base in the development of functional nano-crystal based architectures. The measured array charging energy E_c for these CoPt₃quantum dot solids increases as the nanocrystal diameter d is reduced. The result shows that the measured array charging energy depends on the nanocrystal diameter, whereas the effects of classical nearest neighbor coupling should be considered.