InGaN micro-LED array with integrated emission and detection functions for color detection application.

InGaN-based micro-LEDs can detect and emit optical signals simultaneously, owing to their overlapping emission and absorption spectra, enabling color detection. In this paper, we fabricated a green InGaN-based micro-LED array with integrated emission and detection functions. On the back side of the integrated device, when the 80 µm micro-LED emitted light, the 200 µm LED could receive reflected light to accomplish color detection. The spacing between the 80 µm and the 200 µm micro-LEDs was optimized to be 1 mm to reduce the effect of the direct light transmitted through the n-GaN layer without reflection. The integrated device shows good detection performance for different colors and skin colors, even in a dark environment. In addition, light can be emitted from the top side of the device. Utilization of light from both sides of the integrated device provides the possibility of its application in display, communication, and detection on the different sides.

Size-dependent sidewall defect effect of GaN blue micro-LEDs by photoluminescence and fluorescence lifetime imaging.

Sidewall defects play a key role in determining the efficiency of GaN-based micro-light emitting diodes (LEDs) for next generation display applications, but there still lacks direct observation of defects-related recombination at the affected area. In this Letter, we proposed a direct technique to investigate the recombination mechanism and size effect of sidewall defects for GaN blue micro-LEDs. The results show that mesa etching will produce stress release near the sidewall, which can reduce the quantum confinement Stark effect (QCSE) to improve the radiative recombination. Meanwhile, the defect-related non-radiative recombination generated by the sidewall defects plays a leading role under low-power injection. In addition, the effective area of the mesas affected by the sidewall defects can be directly observed according to the fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope (FLIM) characterization. For example, the effective area of the mesa with 80 µm is affected by 23% while the entire area of the mesa with 10 µm is almost all affected. This study provides guidance for the analysis and repair of sidewall defects to improve the quantum efficiency of micro-LEDs display at low current density.

P-type nitrogen-doped ß-Ga2O3: the role of stable shallow acceptor NO-VGa complexes.

In-depth understanding of the acceptor states and origins of p-type conductivity is essential and critical to overcome the great challenge for the p-type doping of ultrawide-bandgap oxide semiconductors. In this study we find that stable NO-VGa complexes can be formed with ε(0/-) transition levels significantly smaller than those of the isolated NO and VGa defects using N2 as the dopant source. Due to the defect-induced crystal-field splitting of the p orbitals of Ga, O and N atoms, and the Coulomb binding between NO(II) and VGa(I), an a' doublet state at 1.43 eV and an a'' singlet state at 0.22 eV above the valence band maximum (VBM) are formed for the ß-Ga2O3:NO(II)-VGa(I) complexes with an activated hole concentration of 8.5 × 1017 cm-3 at the VBM, indicating the formation of a shallow acceptor level and the feasibility to obtain p-type conductivity in ß-Ga2O3 even when using N2 as the dopant source. Considering the transition from NO(II)-V0Ga(I) + e to NO(II)-V-Ga(I), an emission peak at 385 nm with a Franck-Condon shift of 1.08 eV is predicted. These findings are of general scientific significance as well as technological application significance for p-type doping of ultrawide-bandgap oxide semiconductors.

Nanowire-Seeded Growth of Single-Crystalline (010) ß-Ga2 O3 Nanosheets with High Field-Effect Electron Mobility and On/Off Current Ratio.

2D ß-Ga2 O3 nanosheets, as fundamental materials, have great potential in next generations of ultraviolet transparent electrodes, high-temperature gas sensors, solar-blind photodetectors, and power devices, while their synthesis and growth with high crystalline quality and well-controlled orientation have not been reported yet. The present study demonstrates how to grow single-crystalline ultrathin quasi-hexagonal ß-Ga2 O3 nanosheets with nanowire seeds and proposes a hierarchy-oriented growth mechanism. The hierarchy-oriented growth is initiated by epitaxial growth of a single-crystalline ( 2 - 01 ) ß-Ga2 O3 nanowire on a GaN nanocrystal and followed by homoepitaxial growth of quasi-hexagonal (010) ß-Ga2 O3 nanosheets. The undoped 2D (010) ß-Ga2 O3 nanosheet field effect transistor has a field-effect electron mobility of 38 cm2 V-1 s-1 and an on/off current ratio of 107 with an average subthreshold swing of 150 mV dec-1 . The from-nanowires-to-nanosheets technique paves a novel way to fabricate nanosheets, which has great impact on the field of nanomaterial synthesis and growth and the area of nanoelectronics as well.

Laser-based white-light source for high-speed underwater wireless optical communication and high-efficiency underwater solid-state lighting.

White light generated by mixing the red, green, and blue laser diodes (RGB LDs) for simultaneous high-speed underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) and high-efficiency underwater solid-state lighting (SSL) was proposed and demonstrated experimentally for the first time. The allowable maximum real-time data transmission rates of 3.2 Gbps, 3.4 Gbps, and 3.1 Gbps for RGB LDs with corresponding BERs of 3.6 × 10-3, 3.5 × 10-3 and 3.7 × 10-3 were obtained at a 2.3 m underwater transmission distance using an on-off keying (OOK) modulation scheme, respectively. And the corresponding UWOC aggregate data rate of 9.7 Gbps was achieved based on RGB LDs-based wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) UWOC. Moreover, UWOC and underwater SSL by using RGB LDs mixed white light were investigated at different scenarios over an underwater link of 2.3 m. The RGB LDs mixed white light-based UWOC system without optical diffusers yielded a maximum allowable data rate of 8.7 Gbps with Commission International de l'Eclairage coordinates (CIE) of (0.3154, 0.3354), a correlated color temperature of 6322 K, a color rendering index of 69.3 and a corresponding illuminance of 7084 lux. Furthermore, optical diffusers were employed to provide large-area underwater SSL. The LDs mixed white light-based UWOC system with line and circle optical diffusers implemented data rates of 5.9 Gbps and 6.6 Gbps with CIE coordinates of (0.3183, 0.3269) and (0.3298, 0.3390), respectively. This work suggests the potential of LDs for applications in high-efficiency underwater white-light SSL and high-speed UWOC.

34.5 m underwater optical wireless communication with 2.70 Gbps data rate based on a green laser diode with NRZ-OOK modulation.

To enable high-speed long-distance underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) supplementing traditional underwater wireless communication, a low-power 520 nm green laser diode (LD) based UOWC system was proposed and experimentally demonstrated to implement maximal communication capacity of up to 2.70 Gbps data rate over a 34.5 m underwater transmission distance by using non-return-to-zero on-off keying (NRZ-OOK) modulation scheme. Moreover, maximum data rates of up to 4.60 Gbps, 4.20 Gbps, 3.93 Gbps, 3.88 Gbps, and 3.48 Gbps at underwater distances of 2.3 m, 6.9 m, 11.5 m, 16.1 m and 20.7 m were achieved, respectively. The light attenuation coefficient of ~0.44 dB/m was obtained and the beam divergence angle is 0.35°, so the aallowable underwater transmission distance can be estimated to be ~90.7 m at a data rate of 0.15 Gbps with a corresponding received light-output power of -33.01 dBm and a bit-error rate (BER) of 2.0 ×10-6. In addition, when the data rate is up to 1 Gbps, the UOWC distance is predicted to be ~62.7 m for our proposed UOWC system. The achievements we make are suitable for applications requiring high-speed long-distance real-time UOWC.

White emission by self-regulated growth of InGaN/GaN quantum wells on in situ self-organized faceted n-GaN islands.

The in situ self-organization of three-dimensional n-GaN islands of distinct sidewall faceting was realized by initial low V/III ratio growth under high reactor pressure followed by variations of the V/III ratio and reactor pressure. The naturally formed faceted islands with top and sidewall facets of various specific polar angles may serve as an ideal template for self-regulated growth of the InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs), i.e. the growth behavior is specific polar angle dependent. Further, the growth behavior and luminescence properties of the InGaN/GaN MQWs on various facets of different specific polar angles are directly compared and discussed. Tetrachromatic white emissions (blue, cyan, green, and red) from single-chip phosphor-free InGaN/GaN MQWs are realized by color tuning through island shaping, shape variations, and self-regulated growth of the InGaN/GaN MQWs.

Thermoelectric performance of 2D materials: the band-convergence strategy and strong intervalley scatterings.

The strategy of band convergence of multi-valley conduction bands or multi-peak valence bands has been widely used to search or improve thermoelectric materials. However, the phonon-assisted intervalley scatterings due to multiple band degeneracy are usually neglected in the thermoelectric community. In this work, we investigate the (thermo)electric properties of non-polar monolayer ß- and α-antimonene considering full mode- and momentum-resolved electron-phonon interactions. We also analyze thoroughly the selection rules on electron-phonon matrix-elements using group-theory arguments. Our calculations reveal strong intervalley scatterings between the nearly degenerate valley states in both ß- and α-antimonene, and the commonly-used deformation potential approximation neglecting the dominant intervalley scattering gives inaccurate estimations of the electron-phonon scattering and thermoelectric transport properties. By considering full electron-phonon interactions based on the rigid-band approximation, we find that, the maximum value of the thermoelectric figure of merits zT at room temperature reduces to 0.37 in ß-antimonene, by a factor of 5.7 compared to the value predicted based on the constant relaxation-time approximation method. Our work not only provides an accurate prediction of the thermoelectric performances of antimonenes, which reveals the key role of intervalley scatterings in determining the electronic part of zT, but also exhibits a computational framework for thermoelectric materials.

New Sb2Te3-xSex Monolayers with High Electron Mobilities and Wide Absorption Range.

As a traditional thermoelectric material with high thermoelectric performance at room temperature, antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) has been widely used in energy applications like power generation and refrigeration. By employing the "atomic transmutation" method, three new kinds of Sb2Te3-based monolayers of α-Sb2Te2Se, α-Sb2TeSe2, and ß-Sb2TeSe2 are designed, which are expected to possess a high thermoelectric performance due to the quantum-confinement effects. In this work, by using the ab initio calculations, we systematically study electronic structures, vibration modes, optical, transport, and thermoelectric properties for the three kinds of monolayers and find that they are indirect-band-gap semiconductor materials with chemical and thermodynamic stability up to 700 K (α-Sb2TeSe2) or 900 K (α-Sb2Te2Se and ß-Sb2TeSe2). The band gaps are around 1.0 eV with five nearly degenerate peaks in valence bands. The three Sb2Te3-xSex monolayers possess high electron mobilities larger than 1000 cm2/(V s), and the maximum zT values of α-Sb2Te2Se/α-Sb2TeSe2/ß-Sb2TeSe2 are 0.70/0.71/0.65 at 300 K, respectively. For optical properties, the three Sb2Te3-xSex monolayers possess a wide absorption range from the blue region to the ultraviolet region. Compared with Sb2Te3, the three new kinds of monolayers possess a wider range of absorptions, higher mobilities, and thermoelectric performances, which may lead to promising applications in thermoelectric devices and saturable absorbers.

Ultrahigh electron mobility induced by strain engineering in direct semiconductor monolayer Bi2TeSe2.

The successful commercial applications as thermoelectric devices and, due to their exotic electronic properties, as topological insulators of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and bismuth selenide (Bi2Se3) have stimulated research interest on Bi2Se3/Bi2Te3-based chemical compounds. Based on the first-principles calculations, we investigate the electronic, optical, vibrational and transport properties of new monolayer Bi2TeSe2 obtained by transmuting one Se atom into its neighboring Te atom in the same group from Bi2Se3. We find that the monolayer Bi2TeSe2 maintains a stable hexagonal structure up to 700 K. Monolayer Bi2TeSe2 possesses a direct bandgap of 0.29 eV due to the strong spin-orbit coupling effects, and it remains a direct semiconductor for strains in a moderate range. The optical absorption covers a wide range from the green region to the ultraviolet region, which may lead to applications in optoelectronic devices like saturable absorbers. An extremely high electron mobility of 20 678 cm2 V-1 s-1 along the zigzag direction can be achieved by strain engineering with -6% compressive strain, which is nearly ten times larger than the intrinsic mobility. These indicate that monolayer Bi2TeSe2 is a promising candidate for future high-speed (opto)electronic devices.