Charge Transport-Induced Recoil and Dissociation inDouble Quantum Dots.

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) arefree-standing nanostructureswith chemically tunable electronic properties. This combination ofproperties offers intriguing new possibilities for nanoelectromechanicaldevices that were not explored yet. In this work, we consider a newscanning tunneling microscopy setup for measuring ligand-mediatedeffective interdot forces and for inducing motion of individual CQDswithin an array. Theoretical analysis of a double quantum dot structurewithin this setup reveals for the first time voltage-induced interdotrecoil and dissociation with pronounced changes in the current. Consideringrealistic microscopic parameters, our approach enables correlatingthe onset of mechanical motion under bias voltage with the effectiveligand-mediated binding forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]