Suppressed blinking behavior of thioglycolic acid capped CdTe quantum dot by amine functionalization

Prepared water soluble thioglycolic acid capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) were further surface functionalized by ethylene diamine (EDA). Amine functionalized CdTe QDs demonstrate enhanced luminescence intensity at ensemble measurements and suppressed luminescence intermittency behavior at the single molecule level. A clear decrease in the power law exponent for ``on'' time behavior is observed in amine modified CdTe QDs. Our results show that surface of CdTe QDs modified by EDA can lead to an important physical mechanism to enhance fluorescence intensity, reduce blinking, and increase photostability. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics.[doi: 10.1063/1.3671075