Femtosecond Spectroscopy of Carrier Relaxation Dynamics in Type II CdSe/CdTe Tetrapod Heteronanostructures

Branched nanocrystal heterostructures synthesized from CdSe and CdTe exhibit a type II band structure alignment that induces separation of charge upon photoexcitation and localizes carriers to different regions of the tetrahedral geometry. The dynamics of carrier relaxation examined with femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy showed heterostructures having rise times and biexponential decays longer than those of nanorods with similar dimensions. This is attributed to weaker interactions with surface states and nonradiative relaxation channels afforded by the type II alignment.