Title
Strong Quantum Confinement Effects and Chiral Excitons in Bio-Inspired ZnO-Amino Acid Cocrystals
Author
Muhammed, M.A.H.
Lamers, M.
Baumann, V.
Dey, P.
Blanch, A.J.
Polishchuk, I.
Kong, X.T.
Levy, D.
Urban, A.S.
Govorov, A.O.
Pokroy, B.
Rodríguez-Fernández, J.
Feldmann, J.
Publication year
2018
Abstract
Elucidating the underlying principles behind band gap engineering is paramount for the successful implementation of semiconductors in photonic and optoelectronic devices. Recently it has been shown that the band gap of a wide and direct band gap semiconductor, such as ZnO, can be modified upon cocrystallization with amino acids, with the role of the biomolecules remaining unclear. Here, by probing and modeling the light-emitting properties of ZnO-amino acid cocrystals, we identify the amino acids' role on this band gap modulation and demonstrate their effective chirality transfer to the interband excitations in ZnO. Our 3D quantum model suggests that the strong band edge emission blue-shift in the cocrystals can be explained by a quasi-periodic distribution of amino acid potential barriers within the ZnO crystal lattice. Overall, our findings indicate that biomolecule cocrystallization can be used as a truly bio-inspired means to induce chiral quantum confinement effects in quasi-bulk semiconductors.
Subject
Amino acids
Biomolecules
Energy gap
II-VI semiconductors
Light emission
Magnetic semiconductors
Optoelectronic devices
Quantum confinement
Wide band gap semiconductors
Zinc oxide
Amino acid co-crystals
Band gap engineering
Band-edge emissions
Direct band gap semiconductors
Inter-band excitations
Light emitting properties
Quantum confinement effects
Underlying principles
Photonic band gap
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DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b01567
TNO identifier
788253
Publisher
American Chemical Society
ISSN
1932-7447
Source
Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 122 (11), 6348-6356
Document type
article