Retraction Note: Non-blinking semiconductor nanocrystals

Abstract

The photoluminescence from a variety of individual molecules1 and nanometre-sized crystallites2 is defined by large intensity fluctuations, known as 'blinking', whereby their photoluminescence turns 'on' and 'off' intermittently, even under continuous photoexcitation2. For semiconductor nanocrystals, it was originally proposed3 that these 'off' periods corresponded to a nanocrystal with an extra charge. A charged nanocrystal could have its photoluminescence temporarily quenched owing to the high efficiency of non-radiative (for example, Auger) recombination processes between the extra charge and a subsequently excited electron–hole pair; photoluminescence would resume only after the nanocrystal becomes neutralized again. Despite over a decade of research, completely non-blinking nanocrystals4, 5 have not been synthesized and an understanding of the blinking phenomenon6 remains elusive. Here we report ternary core/shell {CdZnSe/ZnSe} semiconductor nanocrystals that individually exhibit continuous, non-blinking photoluminescence. Unexpectedly, these nanocrystals strongly photoluminesce despite being charged, as indicated by a multi-peaked photoluminescence spectral shape and short lifetime. To model the unusual photoluminescence properties of the {CdZnSe/ZnSe} nanocrystals, we softened the abrupt confinement potential of a typical core/shell nanocrystal, suggesting that the structure is a radially graded alloy of {CdZnSe} into {ZnSe.} As photoluminescence blinking severely limits the usefulness of nanocrystals in applications requiring a continuous output of single photons, these non-blinking nanocrystals may enable substantial advances in fields ranging from single-molecule biological labelling7 to low-threshold lasers8.