A suite of single molecule spectroscopic techniques and data analysis methods were implemented to explore the complex role of electric fields in single semiconductor nanocrystal photophysics. This dissertation spans the synthesis, characterization, biological applications, and photophysics of semiconductor nanocrystals. The core single molecule techniques employed in the current work include time-resolved fluorescence, time-correlated single photon counting, single molecule spectroscopy, and photon correlation spectroscopy. Various electrode devices were patterned to investigate the optical properties of single nanocrystal systems under an applied electric field. Electric field dependent spectroscopy and data analysis have revealed distributed kinetics and multiple charging of nanocrystals. In addition, interactions of nanocrystal excited states with plasmonic gold films have revealed strong enhancement of multiple exciton emission from single nanocrystals, and control by an applied electric field. The broader implications of this work can be extended to bioimaging, light harvesting, electro-optics, and lasing technologies.
