Colloidal InAs Quantum Dots: Synthesis, Properties, and Optoelectronic Devices

Colloidal indium arsenide (InAs) quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as a compelling class of advanced low-dimensional materials due to their excellent near-infrared (NIR) optical properties and compliance with restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) standard, showing great potential in various photovoltaics, light emission/conversion, and optical sensing applications. Here, a variety of synthetic techniques for preparing high-quality InAs QDs, including hot-injection, seeded growth and cation exchange, are thoroughly reviewed. To realize tailored optoelectronic properties, diverse strategies such as surface passivation, doping, alloying, and shape control of InAs QDs are discussed in detail, which are applicable to fabricate high-performance QDs-based optoelectronic devices, encompassing solar cells, light-emitting diodes, photodetectors and field-effect transistors. Moreover, the main challenges and future research directions of InAs QDs are briefly proposed, providing guidelines to achieve low-cost, heavy metal-free, high-efficiency and stable NIR QDs-based optoelectronics toward commercialization.