Optical properties of HgTe nanocrystals
Résumé
HgTe nanocrystals presently receive growing interest because the negative band gap in bulk HgTe enables tunability of the gap from the infrared to the near infrared in quantum dots thanks to the quantum confinement. Therefore we propose a tight-binding model of HgTe which gives an accurate band structure in a wide energy range of energy compared to recent ab initio calculations. The inverted band structure near the Fermi level and its temperature dependence are also very well described. Using this model, we study the effects of the quantum confinement on the electronic structure of HgTe quantum dots. We calculate the optical absorption spectra of quantum dots with various shapes and diameters up to 10 nm, including excitonic effects using a configuration interaction approach [1]. The optical spectra are consistent with recent experimental data. We also simulate the multiple exciton generation and we discuss the results of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy experiments performed on HgTe nanocrystals. [1] G. Allan and C. Delerue, Phys. Rev. B 86, 165437 (2012). [2] A. Al-Otaify, S.V. Kershaw, S. Gupta, A.L. Rogach, G. Allan, C. Delerue and D.J. Binks, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 15, 16864 (2013).