Multifunctional Doped Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Multifunctional nanomaterials with combined magnetic and optical properties remain one of the most demanded materials in upcoming research. To obtain these materials, we report here several doped semiconductor nanocrystals that simultaneously show tunable emission in a visible and NIR spectral window, above-room-temperature ferromagnetism, and improved conductivity. These nanocrystals are designed by inserting Ni(II) as a dopant in various semiconducting hosts with binary, alloyed, and ternary composition, and the induced multifunctional properties are observed to be stable and reproducible. These semiconducting materials combined with fluorescence and magnetic properties would be useful for a wide range of applications spanning from life science to modern developing device technology.