Beck, FionaGarcia de Arquer, F. PBernechea, MKonstantatos, G2015-12-072015-12-070003-6951http://hdl.handle.net/1885/17073Plasmonic light trapping can increase the absorption of light in thin semiconductor films. We investigate the effect of embedded metal nanoparticle (MNP) arrays on the electrical characteristics of ultra-thin PbS colloidal quantum dot (CQD) photoconductors. We demonstrate that direct contact with the metalnanoparticles can suppress or enhance the photocurrent depending on the work function of the metal, which dominates the optical effects of the particles for ultra-thin films. These results have implications for designing plasmonic CQD optoelectronic devices.This research has been supported by Fundacio0 Privada Cellex Barcelona and the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research under contract PIRG06-GA-2009-256355 and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under Contract No. TEC2011-24744.http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0003-6951..."Publishers version/PDF may be used on author's personal website, institutional website or institutional repository" from SHERPA/RoMEO site (as at 7/12/15). Copyright 2012 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4738993Keywords: Direct contact; Electrical characteristic; Electrical effects; Embedded metal nanoparticles; Light-trapping; Optical effects; Plasmonic; Quantum dot films; Thin semiconductor films; Ultra-thin; Metal nanoparticles; Optoelectronic devices; Plasmons; Semico2012-07-2310.1063/1.47389932016-06-14