Plasmon-Enhanced Energy Transfer in Photosensitive Nanocrystal Device

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) interacted with localized surface plasmon (LSP) gives us the ability to overcome inadequate transfer of energy between donor and acceptor nanocrystals (NCs). In this paper, we show LSP-enhanced FRET in colloidal photosensors of NCs in operation, resulting in substantially enhanced photosensitivity. The proposed photosensitive device is a layered self-assembled colloidal platform consisting of separated monolayers of the donor and the acceptor colloidal NCs with an intermediate metal nanoparticle (MNP) layer made of gold interspaced by polyelectrolyte layers. Using LBL assembly, we fabricated and comparatively studied seven types of such NC-monolayer devices (containing only donor, only acceptor, Au MNP-donor, Au MNP-acceptor, donor-acceptor bilayer, donor-Au MNP-acceptor trilayer, and acceptor-Au MNP-donor reverse trilayer). In these structures, we revealed the effect of LSP-enhanced FRET and exciton interactions from the donor NCs layer to the acceptor NCs layer. Compared to a single acceptor NC device, we observed a significant extension in operating wavelength range and a substantial photosensitivity enhancement (2.91-fold) around the LSP resonance peak of Au MNPs in the LSP-enhanced FRET trilayer structure. Moreover, we present a theoretical model for the intercoupled donor-Au MNP-acceptor structure subject to the plasmon-mediated nonradiative energy transfer. The obtained numerical results are in excellent agreement with the systematic experimental studies done in our work. The potential to modify the energy transfer through mastering the exciton-plasmon interactions and its implication in devices make them attractive for applications in nanophotonic devices and sensors. © 2017 American Chemical Society

Critical role of CdSe nanoplatelets in color-converting CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals for InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes

Here we report CdSe nanoplatelets that are incorporated into color-converting CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals for InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes. The critical role of CdSe nanoplatelets as an exciton donor for the color conversion was experimentally investigated. The power conversion efficiency of the hybrid light-emitting diode was found to increase by 23% with the incorporation of the CdSe nanoplatelets. The performance enhancement is ascribed to efficient exciton transfer from the donor CdSe nanoplatelet quantum wells to the acceptor CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal quantum dots through F�rster-type nonradiative resonance energy transfer. � 2016 Optical Society of America

Singlet and Triplet Exciton Harvesting in the Thin Films of Colloidal Quantum Dots Interfacing Phosphorescent Small Organic Molecules

Efficient nonradiative energy transfer is reported in an inorganic/organic thin film that consists of a CdSe/ZnS core/shell colloidal quantum dot (QD) layer interfaced with a phosphorescent small organic molecule (FIrpic) codoped fluorescent host (TCTA) layer. The nonradiative energy transfer in these thin films is revealed to have a cascaded energy transfer nature: first from the fluorescent host TCTA to phosphorescent FIrpic and then to QDs. The nonradiative energy transfer in these films enables very efficient singlet and triplet state harvesting by the QDs with a concomitant fluorescence enhancement factor up to 2.5-fold, while overall nonradiative energy transfer efficiency is as high as 95%. The experimental results are successfully supported by the theoretical energy transfer model developed here, which considers exciton diffusion assisted Förster-type near-field dipole-dipole coupling within the hybrid films. © 2014 American Chemical Society

Electroluminescence Efficiency Enhancement in Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes by Embedding a Silver Nanoisland Layer

A colloidal quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) is reported with substantially enhanced electroluminescence by embedding a thin layer of Ag nanoislands into hole transport layer. The maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 7.1% achieved in the present work is the highest efficiency value reported for green-emitting QLEDs with a similar structure, which corresponds to 46% enhancement compared with the reference device. The relevant mechanisms enabling the EQE enhancement are associated with the near-field enhancement via an effective coupling between excitons of the quantum dot emitters and localized surface plasmons around Ag nano-islands, which are found to lead to good agreement between the simulation results and the experimental data, providing us with a useful insight important for plasmonic QLEDs. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Investigation of p-type depletion doping for InGaN/GaN-based light-emitting diodes

Due to the limitation of the hole injection, p-type doping is essential to improve the performance of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In this work, we propose and show a depletion-region Mg-doping method. Here we systematically analyze the effectiveness of different Mg-doping profiles ranging from the electron blocking layer to the active region. Numerical computations show that the Mg-doping decreases the valence band barrier for holes and thus enhances the hole transportation. The proposed depletion-region Mg-doping approach also increases the barrier height for electrons, which leads to a reduced electron overflow, while increasing the hole concentration in the p-GaN layer. Experimentally measured external quantum efficiency indicates that Mg-doping position is vitally important. The doping in or adjacent to the quantum well degrades the LED performance due to Mg diffusion, increasing the corresponding nonradiative recombination, which is well supported by the measured carrier lifetimes. The experimental results are well numerically reproduced by modifying the nonradiative recombination lifetimes, which further validate the effectiveness of our approach. � 2017 Author(s)

Large-area (> 50 cm × 50 cm), freestanding, flexible, optical membranes of Cd-free nanocrystal quantum dots

Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have been extensively explored for numerous applications ranging from optoelectronics to biotechnology. This strong demand for the colloidal QDs arises because of their favorable optical and electronic properties. From the application points of view, QDs typically need to be used in their solid form, as opposed to their as-synthesized dispersion form. For immobilization of QDs and homogeneity of their films, various polymers have been used to host QDs within solid media. However, the integration of QDs into a polymeric medium is commonly complex, which requires a high level of understanding to provide optical quality. © 2012 IEEE

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Novel genetic loci associated with hippocampal volume

The hippocampal formation is a brain structure integrally involved in episodic memory, spatial navigation, cognition and stress responsiveness. Structural abnormalities in hippocampal volume and shape are found in several common neuropsychiatric disorders. To identify the genetic underpinnings of hippocampal structure here we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 33,536 individuals and discover six independent loci significantly associated with hippocampal volume, four of them novel. Of the novel loci, three lie within genes (ASTN2, DPP4 and MAST4) and one is found 200 kb upstream of SHH. A hippocampal subfield analysis shows that a locus within the MSRB3 gene shows evidence of a localized effect along the dentate gyrus, subiculum, CA1 and fissure. Further, we show that genetic variants associated with decreased hippocampal volume are also associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (rg =-0.155). Our findings suggest novel biological pathways through which human genetic variation influences hippocampal volume and risk for neuropsychiatric illness