Quantum engineering of colloidal core-shell quantum dots: towards non blinking quantum dots and biexcitonic emission

Abstract

Fluorescence spectroscopy studies have shown that, at a single molecule level, fluorophore emission intensity fluctuates between bright and dark states. These fluctuations, known as blinking, are the main drawback of fluorophores in single molecule experiments. Statistical analysis of these intensity fluctuations have demonstrated that the dark states duration exhibits a universal heavy-tailed power law distribution in organic as well as inorganic fluorophores. However, the precise reasons underlying the blinking of single fluorophores are still matter of debate and whether it can be suppressed is not clear.