TY - JOUR
T1 - Strong Quantum Confinement Effects and Chiral Excitons in Bio-Inspired ZnO–Amino Acid Cocrystals
AU - Muhammed, Madathumpady Abubaker Habeeb
AU - Lamers, Marlene
AU - Baumann, Verena
AU - Dey, Priyanka
AU - Blanch, Adam J.
AU - Polishchuk, Iryna
AU - Kong, Xiang-Tian
AU - Levy, Davide
AU - Urban, Alexander S.
AU - Govorov, Alexander O.
AU - Pokroy, Boaz
AU - Rodríguez-Fernández, Jessica
AU - Feldmann, Jochen
PY - 2018/3/22
Y1 - 2018/3/22
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
U2 - 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b01567
DO - 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b01567
M3 - Article
SN - 1932-7447
VL - 122
SP - 6348
EP - 6356
JO - Journal of Physical Chemistry C
JF - Journal of Physical Chemistry C
IS - 11
ER -