Publication date: 11th March 2026
Achieving efficient and stable solution-processed infrared absorbers is critical for next-generation photovoltaic technologies targeting tandem solar energy harvesting. III-V semiconductor colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) offer a pathway toward heavy-metal-free infrared photovoltaics. With its narrow bandgap and large exciton Bohr radius, Indium antimonide (InSb) is an ideal material to facilitate bandgap tuning in the short-wave infrared region. However, controlled synthesis has been hindered by poorly managed precursor reactivity, resulting in broad size distributions and inefficient light harvesting diodes. In this work, we discuss our approaches to regulate the reactivity of the In and Sb precursors together with ligand choice and organo-metallic additives can lead to size distributions of less than 8% and corresponding well-defined excitonic absorption features in the range of 0.9-1.5 um.
We further show that controlled surface passivation is critical for forming electronically homogeneous CQD solids with suppressed trap densities and balanced charge transport. We found that as-synthesized CQDs contain oxide-like species that complicate ligand exchange and device integration; to address this, we apply thiol-based resurfacing to effectively remove native ligands and oxide species, facilitating subsequent ligand exchange to short organic and inorganic ligands. Metal-halide-exchanged CQD films exhibited low trap-state densities as a result of the reduced surface oxides. Photodiode structure exhibited peak external quantum efficiencies in excess of 30 % in the SWIR region. Devices robust operational stability, retaining the majority of initial performance after extended bias and illumination [1,2].
This work highlights that tailored surface chemistries can concurrently reconstruct and passivate CQD surfaces, addressing long-standing challenges in surface chemistry, and advancing heavy-metal-free CQDs toward stable, high-efficiency SWIR photovoltaics.
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