Biomedical and biochemical tools of förster resonance energy transfer enabled by colloidal quantum dot nanocrystals for life sciences

Semiconductor quantum nanocrystals (NCs) provide the ability to control and fine-tune peak emission wavelength using the size effect, with a broad optical absorption band (excitation window) increasing toward UV wavelength range. Quantum dots with different peak emission wavelengths can be excited at the same wavelength and offer longer fluorescence lifetimes, which make them desirable donor molecules for Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based applications. In this chapter, the tools of FRET using these quantum dot nanocrystals in life science applications are addressed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Understanding and modeling förster-type resonance energy transfer (FRET): FRET-applications, Vol. 3

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Low-threshold optical gain and lasing of colloidal nanoplatelets

Semiconductor nanocrystals, which are also known as colloidal quantum dots (CQDs), are highly attractive materials for high performance optoelectronic device applications such as lasers. With their size, shape and composition tunable electronic structure and optical properties, CQDs are highly desired for achieving full-color, temperature-insensitive, low-threshold and solution-processed lasers [1, 2]. However, due to their small size, they suffer from the nonradiative multiexciton Auger Recombination (AR), where energy of a bound electron-hole pair is transferred to a third particle of either an electron or a hole instead of radiative recombination. Therefore, CQDs having suppressed AR are strongly required for achieving high quality CQD-based lasers. To address this issue, CQDs having different size, shape and electronic structure have been synthesized and studied extensively [3-5]. Generally, suppression of AR and lower optical gain thresholds are achieved via reducing the wavefunction overlap of the electron and hole in a CQD. However, the separation of the electron and hole wavefunctions will dramatically decrease the oscillator strength and optical gain coefficient, which is highly critical for achieving high performance lasers. Therefore, colloidal materials with suppressed AR and high gain coefficients are highly welcomed. Here, we study optical gain performance of colloidal quantum wells [6] of CdSe-core and CdSe/CdS core/crown nanoplatelets (NPLs) that demonstrate remarkable optical properties with ultra-low threshold one- and two-photon optical pumping. As a result of their giant oscillator strength, superior optical gain and lasing performance are achieved from these colloidal NPLs with greatly enhanced gain coefficient [7]. © 2014 IEEE

Excitonic enhancement of nonradiative energy transfer to bulk silicon with the hybridization of cascaded quantum dots

We report enhanced sensitization of silicon through nonradiative energy transfer (NRET) of the excitons in an energy-gradient structure composed of a cascaded bilayer of green- and red-emitting CdTe quantum dots (QDs) on bulk silicon. Here NRET dynamics were systematically investigated comparatively for the cascaded energy-gradient and mono-dispersed QD structures at room temperature. We show experimentally that NRET from the QD layer into silicon is enhanced by 40% in the case of an energy-gradient cascaded structure as compared to the mono-dispersed structures, which is in agreement with the theoretical analysis based on the excited state population-depopulation dynamics of the QDs. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC

Intimate Monolithic integration of Chip-scale Photonic Circuits

Cataloged from PDF version of article.In this paper, we introduce a robust monolithic integration technique for fabricating photonic integrated circuits comprising optoelectronic devices (e.g., surface-illuminated photodetectors, waveguide quantum-well modulators, etc.) that are made of completely separate epitaxial structures and possibly reside at different locations across the wafer as necessary. Our technique is based on the combination of multiple crystal growth steps, judicious placement of epitaxial etch-stop layers, a carefully designed etch sequence, and self-planarization and passivation steps to compactly integrate optoelectronic devices. This multigrowth integration technique is broadly applicable to most III-V materials and can be exploited to fabricate sophisticated, highly integrated, multifunctional photonic integrated circuits on a single substrate. As a successful demonstration of this technique, we describe integrated photonic switches that consume only a 300 x 300 mu m footprint and incorporate InGaAs photodetector mesas and InGaAsP/InP quantum-well modulator waveguides separated by 50 mu m on an InP substrate. These switches perform electrically-reconfigurable optically-controlled wavelength conversion at multi-Gb/s data rates over the entire center telecommunication wavelength band

Highly efficient visible colloidal lead-halide perovskite nanocrystal light-emitting diodes

Lead-halide perovskites have been attracting attention for potential use in solid-state lighting. Following the footsteps of solar cells, the field of perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) has been growing rapidly. Their application prospects in lighting, however, remain still uncertain due to a variety of shortcomings in device performance including their limited levels of luminous efficiency achievable thus far. Here we show high-efficiency PeLEDs based on colloidal perovskite nanocrystals (PeNCs) synthesized at room temperature possessing dominant first-order excitonic radiation (enabling a photoluminescence quantum yield of 71% in solid film), unlike in the case of bulk perovskites with slow electron-hole bimolecular radiative recombination (a second-order process). In these PeLEDs, by reaching charge balance in the recombination zone, we find that the Auger nonradiative recombination, with its significant role in emission quenching, is effectively suppressed in low driving current density range. In consequence, these devices reach a record high maximum external quantum efficiency of 12.9% reported to date and an unprecedentedly high power efficiency of 30.3 lm W-1 at luminance levels above 1000 cd m-2 as required for various applications. These findings suggest that, with feasible levels of device performance, the PeNCs hold great promise for their use in LED lighting and displays

P-doping-free InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode driven by three-dimensional hole gas

Here, GaN/AlxGa1-xN heterostructures with a graded AlN composition, completely lacking external p-doping, are designed and grown using metal-organic-chemical-vapour deposition (MOCVD) system to realize three-dimensional hole gas (3DHG). The existence of the 3DHG is confirmed by capacitance-voltage measurements. Based on this design, a p-doping-free InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode (LED) driven by the 3DHG is proposed and grown using MOCVD. The electroluminescence, which is attributed to the radiative recombination of injected electrons and holes in InGaN/GaN quantum wells, is observed from the fabricated p-doping-free devices. These results suggest that the 3DHG can be an alternative hole source for InGaN/GaN LEDs besides common Mg dopants. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC

A bright cadmium-free, hybrid organic/quantum dot white light-emitting diode

We report a bright cadmium-free, InP-based quantum dot light-emitting diode (QD-LED) with efficient green emission. A maximum brightness close to 700 cd/m2 together with a relatively low turn-on voltage of 4.5 V has been achieved. With the design of a loosely packed QD layer resulting in the direct contact of poly[N,N′-bis(4-butylphenyl)-N,N′-bis(phenyl) benzidine] (poly-TPD) and 2,2′,2″-(1,3,5-benzinetriyl)-tris(1- phenyl-1-H-benzimidazole) (TPBi) in the device, a ternary complementary white QD-LED consisting of blue component (poly-TPD), green component (QDs), and red component (exciplex formed at the interface between poly-TPD and TPBi) has been demonstrated. The resulting white QD-LED shows an excellent color rendering index of 95. © 2012 American Institute of Physics

Type-II Colloidal Quantum Wells: CdSe/CdTe Core/Crown Heteronanoplatelets

Solution-processed quantum wells, also known as colloidal nanoplatelets (NPLs), are emerging as promising materials for colloidal optoelectronics. In this work, we report the synthesis and characterization of CdSe/CdTe core/crown NPLs exhibiting a Type-II electronic structure and Type-II specific optical properties. Here, based on a core-seeded approach, the CdSe/CdTe core/crown NPLs were synthesized with well-controlled CdTe crown coatings. Uniform and epitaxial growth of CdTe crown region was verified by using structural characterization techniques including transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with quantitative EDX analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Also the optical properties were systematically studied in these Type-II NPLs that reveal strongly red-shifted photoluminescence (up to similar to 150 nm) along with 2 orders of magnitude longer fluorescence lifetimes (up to 190 ns) compared to the Type-I NPLs owing to spatially indirect excitons at the Type-II interface between the CdSe core and the CdTe crown regions. Photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy confirms that this strongly red-shifted emission actually arises from the CdSe/CdTe NPLs. In addition, temperature-dependent time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy was performed to reveal the temperature-dependent fluorescence decay kinetics of the Type-II NPLs exhibiting interesting behavior. Also, water-soluble Type-II NPLs were achieved via ligand exchange of the CdSe/CdTe core/crown NPLs by using 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA), which allows for enhanced charge extraction efficiency owing to their shorter chain length and enables high quality film formation by layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly. With all of these appealing properties, the CdSe/CdTe core/crown heterostructures having Type-II electronic structure presented here are highly promising for light-harvesting applications