Effects of interface-potential smoothness and wavefunction delocalization on Auger recombination in colloidal CdSe-based core/shell quantum dots

Auger nonradiative recombination dominates decay of multicarrier states in high quality colloidal quantum dots (QDs) and thus is critical for many of their optical and optoelectronic applications. Controlling interface-potential smoothness and wavefunction delocalization are proposed as two main strategies for Auger engineering in core/shell QDs. Here, a series of CdSe-based core/shell QDs with nearly ideal optical quality of their single-exciton states are developed and applied for studying biexciton quantum yields and Auger nonradiative recombination rates. Comparative experiments find that the interface-potential smoothness has little influence on biexciton quantum yield and Auger rates of these core/shell QDs with the same CdS outer shells. In contrast, with a fixed total size of the series of QDs, the decreasing hole wavefunction delocalization can increase the Auger rates of positive trions by ∼400%. A mild decrease in electron wavefunction delocalization among the series of QDs results in a small increase in the Auger rates of negative trions (∼50%). Smoothing the core/shell interface can indeed affect the Auger rates, but this is by the way of altering wavefunction delocalization. These findings highlight the importance of control of wavefunction delocalization among the strategies of Auger engineering and provide guidelines for rational design QDs for applications.