Plasmonics in heavily-doped semiconductor nanocrystals

Heavily-doped semiconductor nanocrystals characterized by a tunable plasmonic band have been gaining increasing attention recently. Herein, we introduce this type of materials focusing on their structural and photo-physical properties. Beside their continuous-wave plasmonic response, depicted both theoretically and experimentally, we also review recent results on their transient ultrafast response. This was successfully interpreted by adapting models of the ultrafast response of noble metal nanoparticles. © 2013 EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.