Enhanced Carrier Transport in Strongly Coupled, Epitaxially Fused CdSe Nanocrystal Solids

Strongly coupled, epitaxially fused colloidal nanocrystal (NC) solids are promising solution-processable semiconductors to realize optoelectronic devices with high carrier mobilities. Here, we demonstrate sequential, solid-state cation exchange reactions to transform epitaxially connected PbSe NC thin films into Cu2Se nanostructured thin-film intermediates and then successfully to achieve zinc-blende, CdSe NC solids with wide epitaxial necking along {100} facets. Transient photoconductivity measurements probe carrier transport at nanometer length scales and show a photoconductance of 0.28(1) cm2 V–1 s–1, the highest among CdSe NC solids reported. Atomic-layer deposition of a thin Al2O3 layer infiltrates and protects the structure from fusing into a polycrystalline thin film during annealing and further improves the photoconductance to 1.71(5) cm2 V–1 s–1 and the diffusion length to 760 nm. We fabricate field-effect transistors to study carrier transport at micron length scales and realize high electron mobilities of 35(3) cm2 V–1 s–1 with on–off ratios of 106 after doping.