A direct investigation of photocharge transfer across monomolecular layer between C60 and CdS quantum dots by photoassisted conductive atomic force microscopy

The composite assembly of C60 and CdS Quantum Dots (QDs) on ITO substrate was prepared by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique using arachic acid (AA), stearic acid (SA) and octadecanyl amine (OA) as additives. Photoassisted conductive atomic force microscopy was used to make point contact current-voltage (I-V) measurements on both the CdS QDs and the composite assembly of C60/CdS. The result make it clear that the CdS, C60/CdS assemblies deposited on ITO substrate showed linear characteristics and the current increased largely under illumination comparing with that in the dark. The coherent, nonresonant tunneling mechanism was used to explain the current occurrence. It is considered that the photoinduced carriers CdS QDs tunneled through alkyl chains increased the current rapidly.