A Fast Response-Recovery 3D Graphene Foam Humidity Sensor for User Interaction.

Humidity sensors allow electronic devices to convert the water content in the environment into electronical signals by utilizing material properties and transduction techniques. Three-dimensional graphene foam (3DGF) can be exploited in humidity sensors due to its convenient features including low-mass density, large specific surface area, and excellent electrical. In this paper, 3DGF with super permeability to water enables humidity sensors to exhibit a broad relative humidities (RH) range, from 0% to 85.9%, with a fast response speed (response time: ~89 ms, recovery time: ~189 ms). To interpret the physical mechanism behind this, we constructed a 3DGF model decorated with water to calculate the energy structure and we carried out the CASTEP as implemented in Materials Studio 8.0. This can be ascribed to the donor effect, namely, the electronic donation of chemically adsorbed water molecules to the 3DGF surface. Furthermore, this device can be used for user interaction (UI) with unprecedented performance. These high performances support 3DGF as a promising material for humidity sensitive material.

Graphene and PbS quantum dot hybrid vertical phototransistor.

A field-effect phototransistor based on a graphene and lead sulfide quantum dot (PbS QD) hybrid in which PbS QDs are embedded in a graphene matrix has been fabricated with a vertical architecture through a solution process. The n-type Si/SiO2 substrate (gate), Au/Ag nanowire transparent source electrode, active layer and Au drain electrode are vertically stacked in the device, which has a downscaled channel length of 250 nm. Photoinduced electrons in the PbS QDs leap into the conduction band and fill in the trap states, while the photoinduced holes left in the valence band transfer to the graphene and form the photocurrent under biases from which the photoconductive gain is evaluated. The graphene/QD-based vertical phototransistor shows a photoresponsivity of 2 × 103 A W-1, and specific detectivity up to 7 × 1012 Jones under 808 nm laser illumination with a light irradiance of 12 mW cm-2. The solution-processed vertical phototransistor provides a new facile method for optoelectronic device applications.

Tunable amplified spontaneous emission in graphene quantum dots doped cholesteric liquid crystals.

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have received much research attention, because of their useful structure and optical absorption/emission. We report the tunable amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in GQD-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC), which to the best of our knowledge has not been previously observed. The GQDs are uniformly dispersed with a weight ratio of 0.5 wt.% in CLC. Under optical excitation, typical ASE is triggered in the system at pump energies greater than 1.25 mJ cm-2. The emission peak at the long wavelength edge of the photonic bandgap shifts from 662 to 669 nm, as the working temperature is increased from 50 to 90 °C. The preparation of the combined GQDs and CLC is simple and low-cost, and the resulting material is photostable and non-toxic. Combining the GQD gain material with the self-assembled CLC resonator has potential in the fabrication of ASE source and laser devices.

Random lasing in a colloidal quantum dot-doped disordered polymer.

We report random lasing in colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) doped disordered polymer. The CdSe/ZnS core-shell CQDs are dispersed in hybrid polymer including two types of monomers with different rates of polymerization. After UV curing, spatially localized random resonators are formed owing to long range refractive-index fluctuations in inhomogeneous polymer with gain. Upon the optical excitation, random lasing action is triggered above the threshold of 7mJ/cm2. Through the investigation on the spectral characteristics of random laser, the wavelengths of random lasers strongly depend on pump position, which confirms that random laser modes originate from spatially localized resnonators. According to power Fourier transform of emission spectrum, the average size of equivalent micro resonators is attributed to be 50 µm. The proposed method provides a facile route to develop random lasers based on CQDs, showing potential applications on random fiber laser and laser displays.

Enhanced amplified spontaneous emission in a quantum dot-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystal.

Quantum dot-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (QD-PDLCs) were prepared by photoinitiated polymerization and sealed in capillary tubes. The concentration of QDs in the PDLC was 1 wt%. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) of the quantum dot-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystals was observed with 532 nm wavelength laser excitation. The threshold for ASE was 6 mJ cm(-2), which is much lower than that for homogeneous quantum dot-doped polymer (25 mJ cm(-2)). The threshold for ASE was dramatically enhanced when the working temperature exceeded the clearing point of the liquid crystal; this result demonstrates that multi-scattering caused by the liquid crystals effectively improved the path length or dwell time of light in the gain region, which played a key role in decreasing the threshold for ASE.

High performance PbSe colloidal quantum dot vertical field effect phototransistors.

Here, vertical field effect phototransistors (VFEPTs) based on lead selenide colloidal quantum dots (PbSe CQDs) for infrared photo detection were investigated, using Au/Ag nanowires as the source transparent electrode. VFEPTs have the advantage of easy fabrication of ultrashort channel length devices, as the channel length is simply determined here by the PbSe CQDs active layer's thickness (260 nm). In ultrashort channels, photo-excited carriers quickly (in nanoseconds) transfer to the drain. As soon as a hole (electron) reaches the drain, a hole (electron) is replenished from the source. Accordingly, multiple holes circulate in the ultrashort channel following a single electron-hole photo generation. As a result, the device exhibits superior photoconductive properties over the lateral structure. PbSe CQD VFEPTs show ambipolar operation under low voltage down to one volt at room temperature. Moreover, high photo responsivity and high specific detectivity of 2 × 10(4) A W(-1) and 7 × 10(12) Jones are also achieved in the devices under 808 nm laser illumination. The transparent electrode-based near infrared VFEPTs prepared through this self-assembly solution process show promise for applications in electronics and photoelectronics.

High-performance ambipolar self-assembled Au/Ag nanowire based vertical quantum dot field effect transistor.

Most lateral PbSe quantum dot field effect transistors (QD FETs) show a low on current/off current (I on/I off) ratio in charge transport measurements. A new strategy to provide generally better performance is to design PbSe QD FETs with vertical architecture, in which the structure parameters can be tuned flexibly. Here, we fabricated a novel room-temperature operated vertical quantum dot field effect transistor with a channel of 580 nm, where self-assembled Au/Ag nanowires served as source transparent electrodes and PbSe quantum dots as active channels. Through investigating the electrical characterization, the ambipolar device exhibited excellent characteristics with a high I on/I off current ratio of about 1 × 10(5) and a low sub-threshold slope (0.26 V/decade) in the p-type regime. The all-solution processing vertical architecture provides a convenient way for low cost, large-area integration of the device.

Platinum-scatterer-based random lasers from dye-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystals in capillary tubes.

The resonance characteristics of platinum-scatter-based random lasers from dye-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (DDPDLCs) in capillary tubes were researched for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. After adding platinum nanoparticles (Pt NPs) into the liquid crystal mixtures, the emission spectra of DDPDLCs revealed a lower lasing threshold in comparison with those of DDPDLCs without Pt NPs due to light scattering of liquid crystal droplets and the local field enhancement around Pt NPs. Furthermore, the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) and the lasing threshold were determined by the doping density of the Pt NPs. The threshold was decreased by about half from 17.5 µJ/pulse to 8.7 µJ/pulse on the condition that around 1.0 wt. % was the optimum concentration of Pt NPs doped into the DDPDLCs. The FWHM of the peaks sharply decreased to 0.1 nm. Our work provides an extremely simple method to enhance random lasers from DDPDLCs doped with Pt NPs, and it has potential applications in random fiber lasers or laser displays.

Comparison of photoresponse of transistors based on graphene-quantum dot hybrids with layered and bulk heterojunctions.

Phototransistors based on graphene-quantum dot hybrids have a high responsivity and gain. However, the influence of the type of heterojunction on the photoresponse of the transistors is still undetermined. A comparison was performed on field-effect phototransistors (FEpTs) with two types of heterojunctions: layered heterojunctions (LHs) and bulk heterojunctions (BHs). Through a comparative study, it was shown that BH-FEpTs had electron and hole mobilities (µE and µH) of 677 and 527 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) whereas LH-FEpTs had lower mobilities of µE = 314 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and µH = 367 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1). The large interfacial area in the BHs reduced the degree of channel order (α) by two orders of magnitude compared with the LHs. Although a higher mobility was achieved, an increase in the degree of channel disorder and the lack of an effective transfer mechanism limits the responsivity in BH-FEpTs. Therefore, LH-FEpTs are more appropriate candidates for near infrared phototransistors.

Ambipolar Graphene-Quantum Dot Hybrid Vertical Photodetector with a Graphene Electrode.

A strategy to fabricate an ambipolar near-infrared vertical photodetector (VPD) by sandwiching a photoactive material as a channel film between the bottom graphene and top metal electrodes was developed. The channel length in the vertical architecture was determined by the channel layer thickness, which can provide an ultrashort channel length without the need for a high-precision manufacturing process. The performance of VPDs with two types of semiconductor layers, a graphene-PbS quantum dot hybrid (GQDH) and PbS quantum dots (QDs), was measured. The GQDH VPD showed better photoelectric properties than the QD VPD because of the high mobility of graphene doped in the channel. The GQDH VPD exhibited excellent photoresponse properties with a responsivity of 1.6 × 104 A/W in the p-type regime and a fast response speed with a rise time of 8 ms. The simple manufacture and the promising photoresponse of the GQDH VPDs reveal that an easy and effective way to fabricate high-performance ambipolar photodetectors was developed.

Broadband Phototransistor Based on CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite and PbSe Quantum Dot Heterojunction.

Organic lead halide perovskites have received a huge amount of interest since emergence, because of tremendous potential applications in optoelectronic devices. Here field effect phototransistors (FEpTs) based on CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite/PbSe colloidal quantum dot heterostructure are demonstrated. The high light absorption and optoelectric conversion efficiency, due to the combination of perovskite and quantum dots, maintain the responsivities in a high level, especially at 460 nm up to 1.2 A/W. The phototransistor exhibits bipolar behaviors, and the carrier mobilities are determined to be 0.147 cm2V-1s-1 for holes and 0.16 cm2V-1s-1 for electrons. The device has a wide spectral response spectrum ranging from 300 to 1500 nm. A short photoresponse time is less than 3 ms due to the assistance of heterojunction on the transfer of photoexcitons. The excellent performances presented in the device especially emphasize the CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite-PbSe quantum dot as a promising material for future photoelectronic applications.