One-Pot Synthesis of Color-Tunable Narrow-Bandwidth Ag-In-Ga-Zn-S Semiconductor Nanocrystals for Quantum-Dot Light-Emitting Diodes.

I-III-VI type semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted considerable attention due to their environmental friendly nature and large-scale tunable emission. Herein, we report the successful synthesis of full-spectrum (470 to 614 nm) Ag-In-Ga-Zn-S (AIGZS) NCs by precisely regulating the In/Ga ratios using a facile one-pot method. Intriguingly, the photoluminescence (PL) peak width exhibits a continuous narrowing trend with extended reaction time, ultimately reaching a full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of 34 nm for green AIGZS NCs. Furthermore, the exciton relaxation dynamics of AIGZS NCs were systematically investigated using time-resolved photoluminescence and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. Remarkably, we successfully fabricated blue, green, and red quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs), forecasting the potential of AIGZS NCs with high color purity for applications in full-spectrum QLEDs.

Dual-emission CPB@SMSO@SiO2 composites with tunable afterglow through energy transfer.

Afterglow materials face limitations in color variety, low luminosity, and stability. Thus, developing materials with adjustable afterglow color, increased photoluminescence (PL) intensity, and enhanced stability is crucial. This paper reports the fabrication of a series of core-shell composites, CPB@SMSO@SiO2, which combine Sr2MgSi2O7: Eu2+, Dy3+ (SMSO) and lead halide perovskite quantum dots (CsPbBr3/CPB PeQDs) through a process involving in-situ growth and hydrolytic coating. The SMSO in the composite can absorb 365 nm UV light and then emit 470 nm light, which can be absorbed by the CsPbBr3 PeQDs, resulting in an overall increase in the PL intensity of the composite. The afterglow color can be turned from green to blue by adjusting the ratio of SMSO and CsPbBr3. Furthermore, the stability of the composites is improved by the SiO2 shell layer formed by hydrolysis of tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS). This study presents an opportunity to develop innovative afterglow materials.

Photo-Responsive Dynamic Organic Room-Temperature Phosphorescence Materials Based on a Functional Unit Combination Strategy.

A rational molecular design strategy facilitates the development of a purely organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) material system with precisely regulated luminescence properties, which surely promotes its functional integration and intelligent application. Here, a functional unit combination strategy is proposed to design novel RTP molecules combining a folding unit with diverse luminescent cores. The different luminescent cores are mainly responsible for tunable RTP properties, while the folding unit contributes to the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) enhancement, which makes the RTP material design as workable as the building block principle. By this strategy, a series of color/lifetime-tunable RTP materials is achieved with unique photo-responsive RTP enhancement when subjected to UV irradiation, which expands their application scenarios in reusable privacy tags, advanced "4D" encryption, and phase separation analysis of blended polymers. This work suggests a simple and effective strategy to design purely organic RTP materials with tunable color and lifetime, and also provides new application options for photo-responsive dynamic RTP materials.

Temperature-Dependent Color-Tunable Afterglow in Zirconium-Doped CsCdCl3 Perovskite for Advanced Anti-Counterfeiting and Thermal Distribution Detection.

Persistent luminescence (PersL) materials exhibit thermal-favored optical behavior, enabling their unique applications in security night vision signage, in vivo bioimaging, and optical anti-counterfeiting. Therefore, developing efficient and color-tunable PersL materials is significantly crucial in promoting advanced practical use. In this study, hexagonal Zr4+ -doped CsCdCl3 perovskite is synthesized via a hydrothermal reaction with a tunable photoluminescent (PL) behavior through heterovalent substitution. Moreover, the incorporation of Zr4+ ions result in an extra blue emission band, originating from the enhanced excitonic recombination in D3d octahedrons. Furthermore, the afterglow performances of the samples are dramatically improved, along with the noticeable temperature-dependent PersL as well as the thermo-luminescence with tunable color output. Detailed analysis reveals that the unique temperature-dependent PersL and thermo-luminescence color change are attributed to the presence of multiple luminous centers and abundant traps. Overall, this work facilitates the development of optical intelligence platforms and novel thermal distribution probes with the as-developed halides perovskite for its superior explored PersL characteristic.

Amorphous photonic structure in a charged colloidal system showing angle-independent uniform color.

Structural colors derived from the scattering or reflection of light by submicron-sized ordered structures are interesting due to their non-fading and tunable colors. Herein we show a colored angle-independent amorphous phase of monodisperse colloids between the crystalline and random phases in a charged colloidal system. The amorphous photonic structures with low packing density display uniform color over large areas; this is easily altered by adjusting the particle volume fraction. The transmission spectra of amorphous phases display an intersection point at the Bragg wavelength, allowing design of the transmission color. We demonstrate that the aqueous suspended colloidal amorphous structures can be immobilized in hydrogel films, while preserving their spectral properties. The sensitivity of the gel to ethanol allows the color to be tuned by changing the ethanol concentration. This angle-independent uniform color with easy tunability has great potential for application in advanced color materials and sensors.

Azobenzene/Acid Binary Systems for Colorimetric Humidity Sensing with Reversibility, High Sensitivity, and Tunable Colors.

Humidity sensors are important for humidity detection in many storage and manufacturing processes. Issues like sensibility, response rate, controllability, and material and preparation process costs need to be taken into consideration for practical applications. Herein, we report an investigation on a series of azobenzene/acid binary systems using easily accessible compounds, whose thin films display reversible and widely tunable color changes in response to humidity stimulation, with high sensitivity, fast color change, and recovery speed. The interesting properties for colorimetric humidity sensing are showcased with potential applications in dynamic art painting, smart windows, and respiration monitoring.

2-Hydroxybenzophenone Derivatives: ESIPT Fluorophores Based on Switchable Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonds and Excitation Energy-Dependent Emission.

In this work, a new series of 2-hydroxybenzophenone (BPOH) derivatives, BPOH-TPA, BPOH-PhCz, and BPOH-SF substituting with different electron-donating groups are designed and synthesized. Dual-emission spectra are observed in solutions indicating their excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) character. In solid states, all compounds exhibit a broad emission spectrum when excited at low excitation energy, deriving from the enol-type form stabilized by intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Compound BPOH-TPA shows a clear excitation wavelength dependence. However, such behavior is absent in BPOH-PhCz and BPOH-SF, as the rigid and weaker donor moieties may restrict this process. Furthermore, by increasing the excitation energy, dual emission with a high-energy band ranging from 550 to 582 nm and a low-energy band ranging from 625 to 638 nm is obtained in all three molecules. The photophysical studies and single-crystal analyses are performed to further illustrate the excitation-dependent emission. Higher excitation energies can promote more excitons to keto forms via ESIPT, giving a stronger redshifted emission. BPOH-TPA with a stronger donor strength exhibits an obvious color change gradually from yellow to orange-red with the increasing excitation power from 1 to 15 mW/cm2. This study provides a novel example of ESIPT materials with tunable emission colors.

Laser nanoprinting of floating three-dimensional plasmonic color in pH-responsive hydrogel.

Recent demonstrations of metasurfaces present their great potential to implement flat and multifunctional optical elements, which are accomplished with the designs of planar optics and micro-/nano- fabrications. Integrating metasurfaces in three dimensions has manifested drastically increasing advantages in manipulating light fields by extending design freedom. However, fabricating three-dimensional metasurfaces remain a tough challenge due to the lack of stereo printing protocols. Herein, we demonstrate laser nanoprinting of floated silver nanoparticle array in transparent hydrogel films for 3D metasurface to achieve color patterning. It is found that spatially resolved nanoparticles can be produced through laser induced photoreduction of silver ions and robustly anchored to the gel backbones by a focused femtosecond laser beam within a pH-responsive smart hydrogel matrix. With the aid of expansion properties of the pH-responsive hydrogel, repetitive coloration of the patterned plasmonic nanoparticle array over a wide spectrum range is achieved via reversible regulation of nanoparticle spacing from 550 to 350 nm and vice versa. This approach allows broadband 3D color-regulation in nanoscale for applications in active spectral filtering, information encryption, security tagging and biological colorimetric sensing, etc.

Humidity- and Temperature-Tunable Metal-Hydrogel-Metal Reflective Filters.

A tunable reflectance filter based on a metal-hydrogel-metal structure responsive to humidity and temperature is reported. The filter employs a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-acrylamidobenzophenone (PNIPAm-BP) hydrogel as an insulator layer in the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) assembly. The optical resonance of the structure is tunable by water immersion across the visible and near-infrared range. Swelling/deswelling and the volume phase transition of the hydrogel allow continuous reversible humidity- and/or temperature-induced tuning of the optical resonance. This work paves the way toward low-cost large-area fabrication of actively tunable reversible photonic devices.

Machine Learning Guided Design of Single-Phase Hybrid Lead Halide White Phosphors.

Designing new single-phase white phosphors for solid-state lighting is a challenging trial-error process as it requires to navigate in a multidimensional space (composition of the host matrix/dopants, experimental conditions, etc.). Thus, no single-phase white phosphor has ever been reported to exhibit both a high color rendering index (CRI - degree to which objects appear natural under the white illumination) and a tunable correlated color temperature (CCT). In this article, a novel strategy consisting in iterating syntheses, characterizations, and machine learning (ML) models to design such white phosphors is demonstrated. With the guidance of ML models, a series of luminescent hybrid lead halides with ultra-high color rendering (above 92) mimicking the light of the sunrise/sunset (CCT = 3200 K), morning/afternoon (CCT = 4200 K), midday (CCT = 5500 K), full sun (CCT = 6500K), as well as an overcast sky (CCT = 7000 K) are precisely designed.

Metasurface Color Filters Using Aluminum and Lithium Niobate Configurations.

Two designs of metasurface color filters (MCFs) using aluminum and lithium niobate (LN) configurations are proposed and numerically studied. They are denoted as tunable aluminum metasurface (TAM) and tunable LN metasurface (TLNM), respectively. The configurations of MCFs are composed of suspended metasurfaces above aluminum mirror layers to form a Fabry-Perot (F-P) resonator. The resonances of TAM and TLNM are red-shifted with tuning ranges of 100 nm and 111 nm, respectively, by changing the gap between the bottom mirror layer and top metasurface. Furthermore, the proposed devices exhibit perfect absorption with ultra-narrow bandwidth spanning the whole visible spectral range by composing the corresponding geometrical parameters. To increase the flexibility and applicability of proposed devices, TAM exhibits high sensitivity of 481.5 nm/RIU and TLNM exhibits high figure-of-merit (FOM) of 97.5 when the devices are exposed in surrounding environment with different refraction indexes. The adoption of LN-based metasurface can enhance FWHM and FOM values as 10-fold and 7-fold compared to those of Al-based metasurface, which greatly improves the optical performance and exhibits great potential in sensing applications. These proposed designs provide an effective approach for tunable high-efficiency color filters and sensors by using LN-based metamaterial.

Tunable Color Temperatures and Efficient White Emission from Cs2 Ag1- x Nax In1- y Biy Cl6 Double Perovskite Nanocrystals.

Recently, Bi-doped Cs2 Ag0.6 Na0.4 InCl6 lead-free double perovskites demonstrating efficient warm-white emission have been reported. To enable the solution processing and enrich the application fields of this promising material, here a colloidal synthesis of Cs2 Ag1- x Nax In1- y Biy Cl6 nanocrystals is further developed. Different from its bulk states, the emission color temperatures of the nanocrystal can be tuned from 9759.7 to 4429.2 K by Na+ and Bi3+ incorporation. Furthermore, the newly developed nanocrystals can break the wavefunction symmetry of the self-trapped excitons by partial replacement of Ag+ ions with Na+ ions and consequently allow radiative recombination. Assisted with Bi3+ ions doping and ligand passivation, the photoluminescence quantum yield of the Cs2 Ag0.17 Na0.83 In0.88 Bi0.12 Cl6 nanocrystals is further promoted to 64%, which is the highest value for lead-free perovskite nanocrystals at present. The new colloidal nanocrystals with tunable color temperature and efficient photoluminescence are expected to greatly advance the research progress of lead-free perovskites in single-emitter-based white emitting materials and devices.

Energy Transfer from Ce3+ to Tb3+ /Dy3+ /Mn2+ in Ca9 Ga(PO4 )7 Phosphors: Synthesis, Structure and Tunable Multicolor Luminescent Properties.

A series of Ca9 Ga(PO4 )7 :Ce3+ /Tb3+ /Dy3+ /Mn2+ phosphors with tunable color, in which Ce3+ acts as the sensitizer, was synthesized. Energy transfer (ET) from Ce3+ to Tb3+ /Dy3+ /Mn2+ was investigated in detail. Tb3+ /Dy3+ /Mn2+ single-doped Ca9 Ga(PO4 )7 can exhibit green, yellow, and red emission, respectively. Incorporating Ce3+ into a Tb3+ /Dy3+ /Mn2+ single-doped Ca9 Ga(PO4 )7 phosphor can remarkably promote the luminous efficiency of the Tb3+ /Dy3+ /Mn2+ ions. This enhancement originates from an efficient ET from Ce3+ to Tb3+ /Dy3+ /Mn2+ . The ET was validated by luminescence spectra, decay dynamics, and schematic energy levels. Moreover, the intensity ratio of red emission of Mn2+ to violet emission of Ce3+ was analyzed based on energy-transfer and lifetime measurements. In Ce3+ -Tb3+ , Ce3+ -Dy3+ , and Ce3+ -Mn2+ doped Ca9 Ga(PO4 )7 , the emitting color changed from violet to green, yellow, and red, respectively, which indicates the potential use of this new tunable phosphor in UV light-emitting diodes.

Plasmonic- and dielectric-based structural coloring: from fundamentals to practical applications.

Structural coloring is production of color by surfaces that have microstructure fine enough to interfere with visible light; this phenomenon provides a novel paradigm for color printing. Plasmonic color is an emergent property of the interaction between light and metallic surfaces. This phenomenon can surpass the diffraction limit and achieve near unlimited lifetime. We categorize plasmonic color filters according to their designs (hole, rod, metal-insulator-metal, grating), and also describe structures supported by Mie resonance. We discuss the principles, and the merits and demerits of each color filter. We also discuss a new concept of color filters with tunability and reconfigurability, which enable printing of structural color to yield dynamic coloring at will. Approaches for dynamic coloring are classified as liquid crystal, chemical transition and mechanical deformation. At the end of review, we highlight a scale-up of fabrication methods, including nanoimprinting, self-assembly and laser-induced process that may enable real-world application of structural coloring.

Efficient Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with Tunable Color enabled by an Ultralow-Bandgap Nonfullerene Acceptor.

Semitransparent organic solar cells (OSCs) show attractive potential in power-generating windows. However, the development of semitransparent OSCs is lagging behind opaque OSCs. Here, an ultralow-bandgap nonfullerene acceptor, "IEICO-4Cl", is designed and synthesized, whose absorption spectrum is mainly located in the near-infrared region. When IEICO-4Cl is blended with different polymer donors (J52, PBDB-T, and PTB7-Th), the colors of the blend films can be tuned from purple to blue to cyan, respectively. Traditional OSCs with a nontransparent Al electrode fabricated by J52:IEICO-4Cl, PBDB-T:IEICO-4Cl, and PTB7-Th:IEICO-4Cl yield power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 9.65 ± 0.33%, 9.43 ± 0.13%, and 10.0 ± 0.2%, respectively. By using 15 nm Au as the electrode, semitransparent OSCs based on these three blends also show PCEs of 6.37%, 6.24%, and 6.97% with high average visible transmittance (AVT) of 35.1%, 35.7%, and 33.5%, respectively. Furthermore, via changing the thickness of Au in the OSCs, the relationship between the transmittance and efficiency is studied in detail, and an impressive PCE of 8.38% with an AVT of 25.7% is obtained, which is an outstanding value in the semitransparent OSCs.

Tunable luminescence and energy transfer in Ca3 SiO4 Cl2: Ce3+ ,Li+ ,Mn2+ ,Eu2+ phosphors.

A series of color-tunable Ca3-2x-y-z SiO4 Cl2 (CSC):xCe3+ ,xLi+ ,yMn2+ ,zEu2+ phosphors with low temperature phase structure was synthesized via the sol-gel method. An energy transfer process from Ce3+ to Mn2+ in CSC:0.01Ce3+ ,0.01Li+ ,yMn2+ (y = 0.03-0.09) and the mechanism was verified to be an electric dipole-dipole interaction. The Ce3+ and Mn2+ emission intensities were greatly enhanced by co-doping Eu2+ ions into CSC:0.01Ce3+ ,0.01Li+ ,0.07Mn2+ phosphors due to competitive energy transfers from Eu2+ /Ce3+ to Mn2+ , and Ce3+ to Eu2+ . Under 332 nm excitation, CSC:0.01Ce3+ ,0.01Li+,0.07Mn2+ ,zEu2+ (z = 0.0005-0.002) exhibited tunable emission colors from green to white with coexisting orange, green and violet-blue emissions. These phosphors could have potential application in white light-emitting diodes.

An Arbitrary Color Light Emitter.

The integration of a light-emitting transistor based on graphene/insulator/semiconductor with downconversion emitters enables the manipulation of emitted light covering the whole chromaticity space, including white-light emission. This novel arbitrary-color light emitter offers a promising approach for new applications in optoelectronic devices ranging from displays to solid-state lighting.

Combining an ionic transition metal complex with a conjugated polymer for wide-range voltage-controlled light-emission color.

We report on voltage-controlled electroluminescence (EL) over a broad range of colors from a "two-luminophor" (2L) light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC), comprising a blend of a majority blue-emitting conjugated polymer (blue-CP), a minority red-emitting ionic transition metal complex (red-iTMC), and an ion-transporting compound as the active layer. The EL color is reversibly shifted from red, over orange, pink, and white, to blue by simply changing the applied voltage from 3 to 7 V. An analysis of our results suggests that the low concentration of immobile cations intrinsic to this particular device configuration controls the electron injection and thereby the EL color: at low voltage, electrons are selectively injected into the low-barrier minority red-iTMC, but with increasing voltage the injection into the high-barrier majority blue-CP is gradually improved.