Novel solution synthesis of the overlooked cubic phase CuGeTe nanocrystals for optoelectronic devices.

Herein, for the first time, we present a novel solution method for controllable synthesis of the overlooked cubic phase CuGeTe nanocrystals. The resulting CuGeTe nanocrystals are of high quality with monodispersed size and uniform shape. Optical characterization demonstrates that CuGeTe nanocrystals have a broad absorption in the visible to near-infrared region. Furthermore, an optoelectronic device based on CuGeTe nanocrystals exhibits excellent stability, reproducibility and responsivity. The novel synthetic route presented here not only can open a new avenue for fabricating CuGeTe nanocrystals, especially at the nanoscale, but also may further expand their applications.