A thin film and a method of making a thin film. The thin film comprises a patterned substrate, a smooth film of electric field tuned quantum dots solution positioned on the patterned substrate, and a thin layer of metal positioned on the thin film. The method begins by drop-casting a quantum dots solution onto a patterned substrate to create a thin film. While the quantum dots solution is drying, a linearly increasing electric filed is applied. The thin film is then placed in a deposition chamber and a thin layer of metal is deposited onto the thin film. Also included are a method of measuring the photoinduced charge transfer (PCT) rate in a quantum dot nanocomposite film and methods of forming a Shottky barrier on a transparent ITO electrode of a quantum dot film.