Magic Sized Clusters: Exploring the Transition from Molecule to Quantum Dot
Katherine Shulenberger a
a Brandeis University, South Street, 415, Waltham, United States
Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2025 Conference (MATSUSFall25)
E4 (Ultrafast) Spectroscopy for Energy Materials - #SpEM
València, Spain, 2025 October 20th - 24th
Organizers: Jaco Geuchies and Freddy Rabouw
Invited Speaker, Katherine Shulenberger, presentation 382
Publication date: 21st July 2025

Recent years have shown a renewed interest in magic sized clusters as potentially useful nanocrystal systems in devices and other applications. The atomic precision of these clusters leads to highly homogeneous ensemble distributions, overcoming one of the shortcomings of quantum dot-based devices. Simultaneously, observations of vibrational properties appear to be quite molecular-like in nature, such as the recently reported isomerization between cluster structures. These studies beg the question: do the optical properties of magic sized clusters more closely resemble a quantum dot or a molecule? In this work we utilize transient absorption spectroscopy to understand the size, shape, and volume scaling of excited state properties of magic sized clusters. We compare both single exciton and multiexciton lifetimes to reveal the lower limit at which a cluster is a nanocrystal, and when it is more appropriate to consider the optical properties more akin to an inorganic molecule.

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