Magneto-optical properties of trions in non-blinking charged nanocrystals reveal an acoustic phonon bottleneck

Abstract

Charged quantum dots provide an important platform for a range of emerging quantum technologies. Colloidal quantum dots in particular offer unique advantages for such applications (facile synthesis, manipulation and compatibility with a wide range of environments), especially if stable charged states can be harnessed in these materials. Here we engineer the CdSe nanocrystal core and shell structure to efficiently ionize at cryogenic temperatures, resulting in trion emission with a single sharp zero-phonon line and a mono exponential decay. Magneto-optical spectroscopy enables direct determination of electron and hole g-factors. Spin relaxation is observed in high fields, enabling unambiguous identification of the trion charge. Importantly, we show that spin flips are completely inhibited for Zeeman splittings below the low-energy bound for confined acoustic phonons. This reveals a characteristic unique to colloidal quantum dots that will promote the use of these versatile materials in challenging quantum technological applications. © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited.