First Attempts at Quantum Dot Capture in Nanopores
A collaborator of mine is interested in arranging quantum dots on a surface to demonstrate something called super irradiance. All of the sub-resolution particles could emit as one object (think laser) if the conditions are just so. Ideally, a bunch of quantum dots would be stacked closely together (but not touching) in a repeating fashion. You could stimulate the QDs and then record the emission characteristics, through lifetime measurements. Very simply, the idea is to capture a bunch of 6 nm particles and lay them out on a surface in a regular pattern. If we could coat the sidewalls of a pore with the QDs and have them separately spaced, that could satisfy the necessary conditions.
I dried down some CdSe nanoparticles in water (1:1000 dilution from stock) onto our substrates (1255 NPN) to see what kind of aggregates and structures would form.
130kx Pore 1 
130kx Pore 2 
360kx Pore 1 
360kx Pore 2 
8900x Large Scale View 
26500x Aggregates
This Gallery was created by depositing a 1:1000 stock dilution in water of CdSe nanoparticles (6 nm) onto a 1255 NPN chip.
There’s more work to be done, especially to try and arrange the particles but if we can decorate the sidewalls with the particles, we should be able to reconstruct their positions. We can try centrifuging next.