Tailoring Optical Properties of Luminescent Semiconducting Nanocrystals through Hydrostatic, Anisotropic Static, and Dynamic Pressures

Luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals are a fascinating class of materials because of their size-dependent emissions. Numerous past studies have demonstrated that semiconductor nanoparticles with radii smaller than their Bohr radius experience quantum confinement and thus size-dependent emissions. Exerting pressure on these nanoparticles represents an additional, more dynamic, strategy to alter their size and shift their emission. The application of pressure results in the lattices becoming strained and the electronic structure altered. In this Minireview, colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals are first introduced. The effects of uniform hydrostatic pressure on the optical properties of metal halide perovskite (ABX₃), II–VI, III–V, and IV–VI semiconductor nanocrystals are then examined. The optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals under static and dynamic anisotropic pressure are then summarized. Finally, future research directions and applications utilizing the pressure-dependent optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals are discussed.