QUANTUM DOTS – A VARIETY OF NEW APPLICATIONS Edited by Ameenah Al-Ahmadi Quantum Dots – A Variety of New Applications Edited by Ameenah Al-Ahmadi Published by InTech Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia Copyright © 2012 InTech All chapters are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. After this work has been published by InTech, authors have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are the author, and to make other personal use of the work. Any republication, referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source. As for readers, this license allows users to download, copy and build upon published chapters even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. Notice Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published chapters. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book. Publishing Process Manager Molly Kaliman Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic Cover Designer InTech Design Team First published April, 2012 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechopen.com Quantum Dots – A Variety of New Applications, Edited by Ameenah Al-Ahmadi p. cm. ISBN 978-953-51-0483-4 Contents Preface IX Part 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Photothermal Spectroscopic Characterization in CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots: A Review and New Applications 3 Viviane Pilla, Egberto Munin, Noelio O. Dantas, Anielle C. A. Silva and Acácio A. Andrade Part 2 Optics and LASER 25 Chapter 2 Capping of InAs/GaAs Quantum Dots for GaAs Based Lasers 27 Alice Hospodková Chapter 3 Factors Affecting the Relative Intensity Noise of GaN Quantum Dot Lasers 47 Hussein B. AL-Husseini Chapter 4 Silicon Quantum Dots for Photovoltaics: A Review 59 Georg Pucker, Enrico Serra and Yoann Jestin Chapter 5 Ultrafast Nonlinear Optical Response in GaN/AlN Quantum Dots for Optical Switching Applications at 1.55 μm 93 S. Valdueza-Felip, F. B. Naranjo, M. González-Herráez, E. Monroy and J. Solís Chapter 6 Quantum Dots as a Light Indicator for Emitting Diodes and Biological Coding 115 Irati Ugarte, Ivan Castelló, Emilio Palomares and Roberto Pacios Part 3 Electronics 135 Chapter 7 Quantum Dots as Global Temperature Measurements 137 Hirotaka Sakaue, Akihisa Aikawa, Yoshimi Iijima, Takuma Kuriki and Takeshi Miyazaki VI Contents Chapter 8 Magnetic Mn x Ge 1-x Dots for Spintronics Applications 153 Faxian Xiu, Yong Wang, Jin Zou and Kang L. Wang Chapter 9 Silicon Oxide Films Containing Amorphous or Crystalline Silicon Nanodots for Device Applications 183 Diana Nesheva, Nikola Nedev, Mario Curiel, Irina Bineva, Benjamin Valdez and Emil Manolov Chapter 10 Spin-Based Quantum Dot Qubits 207 V. N. Stavrou and G. P. Veropoulos Part 4 Quantum Dots in Biology 223 Chapter 11 Energy Transfer-Based Multiplex Analysis Using Quantum Dots 225 Young-Pil Kim Chapter 12 II-VI Quantum Dots as Fluorescent Probes for Studying Trypanosomatides 241 Adriana Fontes, Beate. S. Santos, Claudilene R. Chaves and Regina C. B. Q. Figueiredo Chapter 13 Quantum Dots-Based Biological Fluorescent Probes for In Vitro and In Vivo Imaging 261 Yao He Preface Quantum dots are one of the most promising types of nanoparticles, which are exceptionally useful for variety of new applications Because of their unique properties. Examples of such applications include optics and LASER, electronics, and biological applications. The variety of quantum dot applications is so wide, that it is impossible for a single book to cover all the latest developments and the new trends of applications. This book provides some collections of practical applications of quantum dots. The book is divided into four sections. In section 1 a review of the thermo-optical characterization of CdSe/ZnS core-shell nanocrystal solutions was performed. The Thermal Lens (TL) technique was used, and the thermal self-phase Modulation (TSPM) technique was adopted as the simplest alternative method. Section 2 includes five chapters where novel optical and lasing application are discussed. In section 3 four examples of quantum dot system for different applications in electronics are given. Section 4 provides three examples of using quantum dot system for biological applications. This is a collaborative book sharing and providing the academic community with a base text that could serve as a reference in research by presenting up-to-date research work on the field of quantum dot systems. We are most grateful to all authors of the chapters for highlighting the important issue of the potential applications of quantum dot system with a high quality work of their research. We are especially thankful for the cooperation and support from InTech team who helped in publishing this book, in particular the publishing process manager of this book, Ms. Molly Kaliman for her hard effort and patience during the process of publishing the book. Ameenah N. Al-Ahmadi, PhD Associate Professor of Physics Faculty of Apllied Science Umm Al-Qura University KSA [...]... environmental changes, surface chemistry, and photo-oxidation Therefore the shell provides an efficient passivation of the surface trap states, giving rise to a strongly enhanced fluorescence quantum yield 4 Quantum Dots – A Variety of New Applications Recently, a new class of CdSe QDs called magic-sized nanocrystals (MSNs), with sizes from 1 to 2 nm and well-defined structures, has attracted considerable attention... or Quantum Dots (QDs) are materials in continuous development that hold potential for a variety of new applications, including uses in fluorescent labels for biomedical science, photonic devices and sensor materials (Bruchez et al., 1998; Prasad, 2004; Sounderya & Zhang, 2008) In biomedical applications, several nanodiagnostic assays have been developed that use QDs They have been applied to diagnostics,... Sounderya, N & Zhang, Y (2008) Use of Core/Shell Structured Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications Recent Patents on Biomedical Engineering Vol 1, N 1, pp 34-42, ISSN 1874-7647 Torruellas, W E.; Wang, Z.; Hagan, D J.; Vanstryland, E W.; Stegeman, G I.; Torner, L & Menyuk, C R (1995) Observation of Two-Dimensional Spatial Solitary Waves in a 24 Quantum Dots – A Variety of New Applications Quadratic... samples can exert important influence on such properties as the radiative quantum efficiency, absorption and emission spectra, stabilization and thermal parameters (including thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity and the thermal coefficient of the refractive index) (Pilla et al., 2007; Lo et al., 2009) of the investigated materials In this way, for a nanoparticle to be a candidate for practical... of a lens with 20 cm focal length Photothermal Spectroscopic Characterization in CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots: A Review and New Applications (a) 9 (b) Fig 1 (a) Schematic diagrams of the TL experimental configuration and (b) details of the geometric configuration of the probe (PB2) and pump (PB1) beams Here M, L and C are mirror, convergent lens and chopper; S, D and O are sample, detector and...Part 1 Introduction 1 Photothermal Spectroscopic Characterization in CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots: A Review and New Applications Viviane Pilla1, Egberto Munin2, Noelio O Dantas1, Anielle C A Silva1 and Acácio A Andrade1 2University 1Federal University of Uberlândia–UFU, Uberlândia, MG Camilo Castelo Branco- UNICASTELO, São José dos Campos, SP Brazil 1 Introduction Nanostructured... Baker, D.R & Kamat, P.V (2010) Tuning the Emission of CdSe Quantum Dots by Controlled Trap Enhancement Langmuir Vol 26 N 13, pp 1127 2–1 1276, ISSN 07437463 Photothermal Spectroscopic Characterization in CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots: A Review and New Applications 19 Banerjee, R.; Jayakrishnan, R & Ayyub, P (2000) Effect of the Size-Induced Structural Transformation on the Band Gap in CdS Nanoparticles... Laser-Induced Conical Diffraction due to Cross-Phase Modulation in a Transparent Medium Journal of the Optical Society of America B Vol 20, N 6, pp 1269-1272, ISSN 0740-3224 Photothermal Spectroscopic Characterization in CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots: A Review and New Applications 23 Pilla, V.; Alves, L P.; Munin, E & Pacheco, M T T (2007) Radiative Quantum Efficiency of CdSe/ZnS Quantum Dots Suspended... 2005) TSPM may be described by Kirchhoff´s diffraction integral (KDI) applied to the propagation of a laser Photothermal Spectroscopic Characterization in CdSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots: A Review and New Applications 5 beam in a nonlinear medium (Catunda & Cury, 1990; Pilla et al., 2003) The theoretical calculation predicted by KDI corroborates the TSPM experimental results (Pilla et al., 2009)... self-focusing and self-defocusing, the generation of spatial solitons, simultaneous spatial-temporal focusing, and self-guided propagation (Catunda & Cury, 1990; Khitrova et al., 1993) Thermal spatial self-phase modulation can be predicted numerically using the Kirchhoff Diffraction Integral (Pilla et al., 2003) We consider the diffraction of a linearly polarized monochromatic plane wave in a finite region . QUANTUM DOTS – A VARIETY OF NEW APPLICATIONS Edited by Ameenah Al-Ahmadi Quantum Dots – A Variety of New Applications Edited by Ameenah Al-Ahmadi Published. CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots: A Review and New Applications 3 Viviane Pilla, Egberto Munin, Noelio O. Dantas, Anielle C. A. Silva and Acácio A. Andrade Part 2 Optics and LASER 25 Chapter 2 Capping of. useful for variety of new applications Because of their unique properties. Examples of such applications include optics and LASER, electronics, and biological applications. The variety of quantum