Atomistic tight-binding computations in structural and optical properties of CdSe/ZnSe/ZnS core/multi-shell nanocrystals

•Structural and optical properties of CdSe/ZnSe/ZnS core/multi-shell nanocrystals are successfully determined.•The atomistic calculations are sensitive with ZnS external growth shell thickness.•The optical band gaps are reduced with the increasing ZnS external growth shell thickness.•The optical property is enhanced in the presence of ZnS external growth shell.•Good agreement is found with the experimental data.

In the present paper, I attempt to theoretically describe, analyze and compare the structural and optical properties in the core/multi-shell nanocrystal structure of a cadmium selenide (CdSe) core surrounded by zinc selenide (ZnSe) inner and zinc sulphide (ZnS) external growth shells. The atomistic tight-binding model (TB) and a configuration interaction method (CI) are implemented to calculate the single-particle spectra, optical band gaps, ground-state wave function overlaps, ground-state oscillation strengths, ground-state coulomb energies, ground-state exchange energies and Stokes shift as a function of ZnS external growth shell thicknesses. I underline that these computations are principally sensitive with the ZnS external growth shell thickness. The reduction of the optical band gaps, overlaps of ground electron-hole wave function, electron-hole interactions and Stokes shift is realized with the increasing ZnS external growth shell thickness. The improvement of the optical intensities is mainly achieved by including the ZnS exterior growth shell encapsulation. Importantly, the optical band gaps based on atomistic tight-binding theory are in a good agreement with the experiment. Finally, this emphasizes that the external passivation shell can now be engineered in a defined way, thus leading to manipulate the natural behaviors of nanodevices based on the scrutinized core/multi-shell nanocrystals.