Pseudopotential Study of CdTe Quantum Dots: Electronic and Optical Properties

The present contribution reports on the electronic and optical properties of zinc-blende CdTe quantum dots using a pseudopotential approach. Our findings showed that the predicted nano-structured direct band gap is significantly increased relative to the bulk one. For a nanocrystal diameter in the range 1.2-5 nm, the refractive index and dielectric constant are found to be highly reduced relative the bulk values. Beyond a nanocrystal diameter of 5 nm, the size dependence of all features of interest becomes weak and tends towards retrieving the bulk value.