The synthesis and characterization of copper indium sulfide and cadmium selenide nanocrystals and their applications in photodetectors

Semiconductor nanocrystals are a topic of much interest in electrical engineering. Their use has been explored for many applications. This paper investigates the synthesis and characterization of CuInS2 and CdSe nanocrystals. As the nanocrystals were left in reaction for increasing amounts of time, the bandgap of the material decreased as the nanocrystal size increased due to the quantum confinement effect. The CdSe nanocrystals were then investigated in a photodetector application which achieved a detectivity on the order of 10^9 cmHz^(1/2)W^(-1).