Recent Progress of Non-Cadmium and Organic Quantum Dots for Optoelectronic Applications with a Focus on Photodetector Devices

Abstract

Quantum dots (QDs) are zero-dimensional (0D) nanomaterials with charge confinement in all directions that significantly impact various applications. Metal-free organic quantum dots have fascinating properties such as size-dependent bandgap tunability, good optical absorption coefficient, tunability of absorption and emission wavelength, and low-cost synthesis. Due to the extremely small scale of the materials, these characteristics originated from the quantum confinement of electrons. This review will briefly discuss the use of QDs in solar cells and quantum dots lasers, followed by a more in-depth discussion of QD application in photodetectors. Various types of metallic materials, such as lead sulfide and indium arsenide, as well as nonmetallic materials, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, will be discussed, along with the detection mechanism.