Tailoring the Interfacial Composition of Heterostructure InP Quantum Dots for Efficient Electroluminescent Devices

Abstract

The formation of core–shell quantum dots (QDs) with type-I band alignment results in surface passivation, ensuring the efficient confinement of excitons for light-emitting applications. In such cases, the atomic composition at the core–shell heterojunction significantly affects the optical, and electrical properties of the QDs. However, for InP cores, shell materials are limited to compositions consisting of II–VI group elements. The restricted selection of shell materials leads to an interfacial misfit, resulting in a charge imbalance at the core–shell heterojunction. In this study, the effect of interfacial stoichiometry is investigated on the optical, and electrical properties of InP core–shell QDs. Direct Se injection strategy is employed during the synthesis of the InP core to regulate the interfacial chemical composition, resulting in the formation of an InZnSe alloy on the core surface. This InZnSe layer reduces the misfit between the InP core, and ZnSe shell, leading to a remarkable photoluminescence quantum yield of 95% with a narrow emission bandwidth of 34 nm. The InZnSe interlayer significantly influences the electroluminescence (EL) processes, increasing the charge injection efficiency, and mitigating charge imbalance. A green-emitting EL device is demonstrated with a maximum luminance of 26370 cd m−2, and a peak current efficiency of 31.5 cd A−1.