Gate-Dependent Carrier Diffusion Length in Lead Selenide Quantum Dot Field-Effect Transistors

We report a scanning photocurrent microscopy (SPCM) study of colloidal lead selenide (PbSe) quantum dot (QD) thin film field-effect transistors (FETs). PbSe QDs are chemically treated with sodium sulfide (Na2S) and coated with amorphous alumina (a-Al2O3) by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to obtain high mobility, air-stable FETs with a strongly gate-dependent conductivity. SPCM reveals a long photocurrent decay length of 1.7 mu m at moderately positive gate bias that decreases to below 0.5 mu m at large positive gate voltage and all negative gate voltages. After excluding other possible mechanisms including thermoelectric effects, a thick depletion width, and fringing electric fields, we conclude from photocurrent lifetime measurements that the diffusion of a small fraction of long-lived carriers accounts for the long photocurrent decay length. The long minority carrier lifetime is attributed to charge traps for majority carriers.