Giant Zeeman splitting in nucleation-controlled doped CdSe:Mn2+ quantum nanoribbons

Abstract

Doping of semiconductor nanocrystals by transition-metal ions has attracted tremendous attention owing to their nanoscale spintronic applications. Such doping is, however, difficult to achieve in low-dimensional strongly quantum confined nanostructures by conventional growth procedures. Here we demonstrate that the incorporation of manganese ions up to 10% into CdSe quantum nanoribbons can be readily achieved by a nucleation-controlled doping process. The cation-exchange reaction of (CdSe)(13) clusters with Mn(2+) ions governs the Mn(2+) incorporation during the nucleation stage. This highly efficient Mn(2+) doping of the CdSe quantum nanoribbons results in giant exciton Zeeman splitting with an effective g-factor of approximately 600, the largest value seen so far in diluted magnetic semiconductor nanocrystals. Furthermore, the sign of the s-d exchange is inverted to negative owing to the exceptionally strong quantum confinement in our nanoribbons. The nucleation-controlled doping strategy demonstrated here thus opens the possibility of doping various strongly quantum confined nanocrystals for diverse applications.