Synergistic photoluminescent interaction of Si and CdTe quantum dots

We report the synergistic photoluminescent effect of colloidal solutions comprising different volumetric concentrations of Si and CdTe quantum dots (QDs) that produces a discernible blue or red shift of the characteristic downshifted peaks of the corresponding QD previously observed in homogeneous colloidal solutions. Specifically, in all cases the characteristic peak of Si QDs was observed to exhibit a blue-shift, whereas, that of CdTe QDs was observed to be blue-shifted in Si-rich solutions and red-shifted in CdTe-rich colloidal solutions. The observed effects are thought to be due to physisorption-type quantum dot interactions leading to surface energy variations.