Non-polar surface passivation of PbS Quantum Dots using metal thiolates enables photodiodes rivaling InGaAs performance
Abstract
Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) short-wave infrared (SWIR) detectors (1-2 µm) are of great interest for a plethora of applications including autonomous driving, machine vision, night and adverse weather imaging, in view of their low-cost and compatibility to read-out electronics. However, to date, CQDs photodetectors still suffer from high dark current and thereby noise such that their performance remains inferior to epitaxially grown III-V semiconductors. This performance gap originates from the limited passivation of non-polar surfaces existent in large PbS CQDs needed to access the SWIR spectral range. Here we report on a lead-thiolate based chemistry that serves to passivate both polar and non-polar surfaces of PbS CQDs yielding inks with unprecedented optoelectronic quality evidenced by open circuit voltage deficit and dark current activation energies matching those of single crystalline semiconductors. As a result, we demonstrate infrared photodetectors with remarkable thermal resilience, very low dark current density ( ~ 34 nA cm ⁻² at −1 V) and a specific detectivity D* of ~8×10 ¹² Jones. The measured D* value is on par with that of commercially available InGaAs photodiodes (PDs).
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BibTeX
@article{mandal2026nonpolar,
title = {{Non-polar surface passivation of PbS Quantum Dots using metal thiolates enables photodiodes rivaling InGaAs performance}},
author = {Debranjan Mandal and Yongjie Wang and Carmelita Rodá and Miguel Dosil and Gaurav Kumar and Lucheng Peng and Gerasimos Konstantatos},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-78740-1},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78740-1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Non-polar surface passivation of PbS Quantum Dots using metal thiolates enables photodiodes rivaling InGaAs performance
AU - Debranjan Mandal
AU - Yongjie Wang
AU - Carmelita Rodá
AU - Miguel Dosil
AU - Gaurav Kumar
AU - Lucheng Peng
AU - Gerasimos Konstantatos
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-78740-1
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78740-1
AB - Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) short-wave infrared (SWIR) detectors (1-2 µm) are of great interest for a plethora of applications including autonomous driving, machine vision, night and adverse weather imaging, in view of their low-cost and compatibility to read-out electronics. However, to date, CQDs photodetectors still suffer from high dark current and thereby noise such that their performance remains inferior to epitaxially grown III-V semiconductors. This performance gap originates from the limited passivation of non-polar surfaces existent in large PbS CQDs needed to access the SWIR spectral range. Here we report on a lead-thiolate based chemistry that serves to passivate both polar and non-polar surfaces of PbS CQDs yielding inks with unprecedented optoelectronic quality evidenced by open circuit voltage deficit and dark current activation energies matching those of single crystalline semiconductors. As a result, we demonstrate infrared photodetectors with remarkable thermal resilience, very low dark current density ( ~ 34 nA cm ⁻² at −1 V) and a specific detectivity D* of ~8×10 ¹² Jones. The measured D* value is on par with that of commercially available InGaAs photodiodes (PDs).
SN - 2041-1723
ER -