Biexciton Binding of Dirac fermions Confined in Colloidal Graphene Quantum Dots

Abstract

We present transient absorption measurements and microscopic theory of biexciton binding in triangular colloidal graphene quantum dots consisting of 168 sp²-hybridized C atoms. We observe optical transitions from the lowest orbitally dark singlet exciton states to states below the energy of an unbound dark+bright singlet-exciton pair. Through microscopic calculations of the low-energy exciton and biexciton states via tight-binding, Hartree–Fock, and configuration interaction methods, the spectra reveal a biexciton consisting primarily of a dark-bright singlet-pair bound by ∼0.14 eV.