Confinement Effects and Charge Dynamics in Zn₃N₂ Colloidal Quantum Dots: Implications for QD-LED Displays

Zinc nitride (Zn₃N₂) colloidal quantum dots are composed of nontoxic, low-cost, and earth-abundant elements. The effects of quantum confinement on the optical properties and charge dynamics of these dots are studied using steady-state optical characterization and ultrafast fluence-dependent transient absorption. The absorption and emission energies are observed to be size-tunable, with the optical band gap increasing from 1.5 to 3.2 eV as the dot diameter decreased from 8.9 to 2.7 nm. Size-dependent absorption cross sections (σ = 1.22 ± 0.02 × 10^–15 to 2.04 ± 0.03 × 10^–15 cm²), single exciton lifetimes (0.36 ± 0.02 to 0.65 ± 0.03 ns), as well as Auger recombination lifetimes of biexcitons (3.2 ± 0.4 to 5.0 ± 0.1 ps) and trions (20.8 ± 1.8 to 46.3 ± 1.3 ps) are also measured. The degeneracy of the conduction band minimum (g = 2) is determined from the analysis of the transient absorption spectra at different excitation fluences. The performance of Zn₃N₂ colloidal quantum dots thus broadly matches that of established visible light emitting quantum dots based on toxic or rare elements, making them a viable alternative for QD-LED displays.