Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 154
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-40039-x

Colloquium

Plasmonics in heavily-doped semiconductor nanocrystals

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, P.zza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy
² Center for Nano Science and Technology@PoliMi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Giovanni Pascoli, 70/3, 20133 Milano, Italy
³ Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, P.zza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy

^a e-mail: francesco.scotognella@polimi.it

Received: 16 January 2013
Received in final form: 14 March 2013
Published online: 15 April 2013

Abstract

Heavily-doped semiconductor nanocrystals characterized by a tunable plasmonic band have been gaining increasing attention recently. Herein, we introduce this type of materials focusing on their structural and photo-physical properties. Beside their continuous-wave plasmonic response, depicted both theoretically and experimentally, we also review recent results on their transient ultrafast response. This was successfully interpreted by adapting models of the ultrafast response of noble metal nanoparticles.