The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 was just awarded to three renowned scientists for the development of quantum dots - nanoparticles so small that their properties are determined by quantum phenomena - or their size instead of the number of electrons in the element. Quantum dots are now used to illuminate televisions and computer screens, LED lamps, and help guide surgeons in removal of tumor tissue.
One of these scientists, Lou Brus, from Bell Laboratories, authored a 1984 paper* on the subject showing that quantum dots could be made with the desired size and structure. One of his collaborators was J. Murray Gibson, now Professor of Mechanical Engineering at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. Professor Gibson shared with us that his role was “the high-resolution electron microscopy which verified the size, shape, crystallography and composition of the dots and so led to the conclusion about their important optical properties being due to quantum-confined bandgaps. It was clearly a significant milestone in the development of quantum dots and is referenced in the Nobel citation. The work was done on my JEOL JEM200CX at Bell Laboratories in 1983.”
* Size effects in the excited electronic states of small colloidal CdS crystallites; R. Rosetti, J.L. Ellison, J.M. Gibson, and L.E. Brus, Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.80, pp 4464-4469, 1984.