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Nature 436, 32-33 (7 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/436032a; Published online 6 July 2005

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Solid-state physics:  Doping the undopable

Giulia Galli1

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Impurities that increase the number of electron carriers are essential in most bulk semiconductors. Introducing such foreign atoms into semiconductor nanocrystals is fiddly, and requires exact knowledge of the material's surface.

Almost a hundred years after the construction of the first 'bulk'(macroscopic) semiconductor device, Erwin et al. (Doping semiconductor nanocrystals)1 present a mechanism to control the inclusion of transition-metal impurities in semiconductor nanocrystals — impurity inclusion is the process known as doping. This advance could allow the electronic and optical properties of nanocrystals to be engineered for applications ranging from solar cells to electronic devices that function using electron spin, rather than electric charge.

  1. Giulia Galli is at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, PO Box 808, Livermore, California 94551, USA.
    Email: galligygi1@llnl.gov

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