Influence of high-pressure treatment on charge carrier transport in PbS colloidal quantum dot solids

Abstract

We investigated the effects of high-pressure treatment on charge carrier transport in PbS colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solids. We applied high pressure to PbS CQD solids using nitrogen gas to reduce the inter-dot distance. Using this simple process, we obtained conductive PbS CQD solids. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy was used to study charge carrier transport as a function of pressure. We found that the minimum pressure needed to increase the dielectric constant, conductivity, and carrier mobility was 4 MPa. All properties dramatically improved at 5 MPa; for example, the mobility increased from 0.13 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 0.1 MPa to 0.91 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 5 MPa. We propose this simple process as a nondestructive approach for making conductive PbS CQD solids that are free of chemical and physical defects.