Prospects of colloidal nanocrystals for electronic and optoelectronic applications

The inorganic Nanocrystals (NCs) which have witnessed a tremendous development in the past decade, with novel synthesis strategies discovered for metallic, semiconducting, and magnetic materials has been reported. Significant success has been achieved in the synthesis of NCs of different technologically important semiconductors. Selective adhesion of surfactant molecules allows for tuning the growth kinetics of different crystal facets and tailoring the NC shape from nearly spherical to highly anisotropic. Combining materials at the nanoscale opens up additional opportunities for manipulating wave functions, plasmon resonances, spins, and other materials properties. The ability to establish facile electronic communication between individual nanostructures and form collective electronic states (minibands) will offer a new generation of electronic materials and device applications.