Disorder and Confinement Effects to Tune the Optical Properties of Amino Acid Doped Cu2O Crystals

Kurashvili, Mariam; Polishchuk, Iryna; Lang, Arad; Strohmair, Simone; Richter, Alexander F.; Rieger, Sebastian; Debnath, Tushar; Pokroy, Boaz und Feldmann, Jochen (2022): Disorder and Confinement Effects to Tune the Optical Properties of Amino Acid Doped Cu2O Crystals. In: Advanced Functional Materials, Bd. 32, Nr. 27

Abstract

Biominerals are organic-inorganic nanocomposites exhibiting remarkable properties due to their unique configuration. Using optical spectroscopy and theoretical modeling, it is shown that the optical properties of a model bioinspired system, an inorganic semiconductor host (Cu2O) grown in the presence of amino acids (AAs), are strongly influenced by the latter. The absorption and photoluminescence excitation spectra of Cu2O-AAs blue-shift with growing AA content, indicating band gap widening. This is attributed to the void-induced quantum confinement effects. Surprisingly, no such shift occurs in the emission spectra. The theoretical model, assuming an inhomogeneous AA distribution within Cu2O-AAs due to compositional disorder, explains the deviating behavior of the photoluminescence. The model predicts that the potential causing the confinement effects becomes a function of the local AA density. It results in a Gaussian band gap distribution that shapes the optical properties of Cu2O-AAs. Imitating and harnessing the process of biomineralization can pave the way toward new functional materials.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• ISSN: 1616-301X
• Sprache: Englisch
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 491502892