The physicochemical properties of a spherical semiconductor nanocrystal, intermediate between the molecule and the solid depend on its size. Stacked or dispersed, these nanocrystals are building blocks of new functional materials with tunable properties, particularly appealing for optoelectronics. This thesis takes part in the development of these new materials. It mainly presents a methodology for the simulation of electronic transport in nanocrystal solids within the weak electronic coupling regime. It is applied to a material made of silicon nanocrystals embedded in silicon oxide and considered for photovoltaïc applications. The displacement kinetics of charge carriers is related to the tunneling transfer rate (hopping) between nanocrystals. These rates are calculated within the framework of Marcus theory and take into account the electron-phonon interactions, the effect of the bias field and the electron-electron interactions at short and long range. The calculation of electronic states (electrons and holes) in k.p theory associated with the use of Bardeen's formula provides, compared to previous works, results (mobility or current) in absolute terms. The mobility thus computed is far lower than the results of the literature and encourage to consider other materials. Furthermore, the device simulations show the significant impact of the electrodes on the current-voltage characteristics. Also, a new accelerated kinetic Monte-Carlo algorithm has been adapted in order to reproduce the disorder inherent in the manufacturing process while maintaining a reasonable simulation time. Thus the impact of the size disorder is poor at room temperature while the percolation paths shunt the contribution of other conduction paths. Characterization results compared to simulations tend to show that these paths concentrate carriers and exhibit Coulomb blockade phenomenon. Finally, the absorption cross section is calculated theoretically to obtain the generation rate under illumination. It is similar to the bulk silicon one. And a method employing a Kelvin probe microscope is described to characterize the carrier lifetime, namely the recombination rate. The results thus obtained are consistent with other experimental technics.
