The
Brus equation or
confinement energy equation can be used to describe the emission energy of
quantum dot semiconductor in terms of the band gap energy
Egap, the
Planck constant h, the radius of the quantum dot
r, as well as the effective mass of the excited electron
me* and of the
excited hole mh*.
The equation was named after Louis E. Brus who independently discovered it.
The radius of the quantum dot affects the wavelength of the emitted light due to quantum confinement, and this equation describes the effect of changing the radius of the quantum dot on the wavelength λ of the emitted light (and thereby on the emission energy , where c is the speed of light). This is useful for calculating the radius of a quantum dot from experimentally determined parameters.
The overall equation is
Egap, me*, and mh* are unique for each nanocrystal composition.
For example, with cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanocrystals:
- Egap (CdSe) = = ,
- me* (CdSe) = 0.13 me = ,
- mh* (CdSe) = 0.45 me = .