Effect of graphene oxide nanoparticles on in vitro growth of Fragaria x ananassa (Cameron Highlands white Strawberry) and evaluation of genetic stability using DAMD and ISSR markers.

Graphene oxide (GO) is a novel nanomaterial with distinct physical properties and significant biological applications. The use of GO in plant tissue culture offers several new properties and potential applications. This research is vital due to the growing need for innovative techniques to promote plant growth, improve plant productivity and mitigate challenges posed by environmental stressors. This study focused on the rare Cameron Highlands white strawberry plants (Fragaria x ananassa) and addressed issues such as callus production during direct shoot induction and hyperhydricity. The research aimed to investigate the effects of GO on the regeneration process and genetic stability of white strawberry plants and to use molecular markers to ensure that plants propagated in vitro are true to type. For this purpose, shoot tip explants were used and different concentrations of GO (0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10 mg/L) were added to the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium for six weeks. The results showed that the optimum concentration for promoting the development of white strawberry seedlings was 7.5 mg/L of GO. The study also revealed that the addition of 7.5 mg/L GO in combination with 8 µM TDZ to the MS medium facilitated the induction of multiple shoots. Moreover, the clonal fidelity of the in vitro plants treated with GO showed a genetic similarity of over 97%. These results confirm that lower GO concentrations improve plant development and stability. Consequently, this nanomaterial has a positive effect on the growth of strawberry plants and is therefore well suited for strawberry tissue culture.

Strain-Reduced Micro-LEDs Grown Directly Using Partitioned Growth.

Strain-reduced micro-LEDs in 50 µm × 50 µm, 100 µm × 100 µm, 200 µm × 200 µm, 500 µm × 500 µm, and 1,000 µm × 1,000 µm sizes were grown on a patterned c-plane sapphire substrate using partitioned growth with the metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique. The size effect on the optical properties and the indium concentration for the quantum wells were studied experimentally. Here, we revealed that the optical properties can be improved by decreasing the chip size (from 1,000 to 100 µm), which can correspondingly reduce the in-plane compressive stress. However, when the chip size is further reduced to 50 µm × 50 µm, the benefit of strain release is overridden by additional defects induced by the higher indium incorporation in the quantum wells and the efficiency of the device decreases. The underlying mechanisms of the changing output power are uncovered based on different methods of characterization. This work shows the rules of thumb to achieve optimal power performance for strain-reduced micro-LEDs through the proposed partitioned growth process.

Light Generation in Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: LEDs, Color Converters, Lasers, and Other Applications.

Facile solution processing lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (LHP-NCs) exhibit superior properties in light generation, including a wide color gamut, a high flexibility for tuning emissive wavelengths, a great defect tolerance and resulting high quantum yield; and intriguing electric feature of ambipolar transport with moderate and comparable mobility. As a result, LHP-NCs have accomplished great achievements in various light generation applications, including color converters for lighting and display, light-emitting diodes, low threshold lasing, X-ray scintillators, and single photon emitters. Herein, the considerable progress that has been made thus far is reviewed along with the current challenges and future prospects in the light generation applications of LHP-NCs.

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 maximum external quantum efficiency of 12.9% and a 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.

High brightness formamidinium lead bromide perovskite nanocrystal light emitting devices.

Formamidinium lead halide (FAPbX3) has attracted greater attention and is more prominent recently in photovoltaic devices due to its broad absorption and higher thermal stability in comparison to more popular methylammonium lead halide MAPbX3. Herein, a simple and highly reproducible room temperature synthesis of device grade high quality formamidinium lead bromide CH(NH2)2PbBr3 (FAPbBr3) colloidal nanocrystals (NC) having high photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE) of 55-65% is reported. In addition, we demonstrate high brightness perovskite light emitting device (Pe-LED) with these FAPbBr3 perovskite NC thin film using 2,2',2″-(1,3,5-Benzinetriyl)-tris(1-phenyl-1-H-benzimidazole) commonly known as TPBi and 4,6-Bis(3,5-di(pyridin-3-yl)phenyl)-2-methylpyrimidine (B3PYMPM) as electron transport layers (ETL). The Pe-LED device with B3PYMPM as ETL has bright electroluminescence of up to 2714 cd/m2, while the Pe-LED device with TPBi as ETL has higher peak luminous efficiency of 6.4 cd/A and peak luminous power efficiency of 5.7 lm/W. To our knowledge this is the first report on high brightness light emitting device based on CH(NH2)2PbBr3 widely known as FAPbBr3 nanocrystals in literature.

Solution-processed highly bright and durable cesium lead halide perovskite light-emitting diodes.

Recently, CsPbBr3 perovskites have been emerging as very promising green emission materials for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) due to their high color purity, low cost and high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). However, the corresponding LED performance is still low and far behind CH3NH3PbBr3; it is due to the lack of proper perovskite film preparation methods and interfacial engineering. Herein, we report highly bright and durable CsPbBr3-based LEDs fabricated using a one-step solution method. The precursor solution is prepared by simply dissolving CsPbBr3 powder and a CsBr additive in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). We find that the CsBr additive not only significantly enhances the PLQY but also induces directional crystal growth into micro-plates, forming a smooth perovskite film for LEDs. LEDs employing such high quality films show a high luminance of 7276 cd m-2 and high color purity with a full width at half maximum of 18 nm. Furthermore, the as-fabricated LEDs reveal an outstanding ambient stability with a decent luminance output (>100 cd m-2, steady increase without any degradation trend) for at least 15 h under a constant driving current density (66.7 mA cm-2). And we propose two reasons for this unique luminance increasing behavior: (1) the CsPbBr3 perovskite is thermally stable and can survive from joule heat; and (2) on the other hand, the joule heating will induce interface or crystalline film annealing, reduce device resistance and then enhance the luminance output.

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 Förster-type nonradiative resonance energy transfer.

Nonradiative recombination--critical in choosing quantum well number for InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes.

In this work, InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) possessing varied quantum well (QW) numbers were systematically investigated both numerically and experimentally. The numerical computations show that with the increased QW number, a reduced electron leakage can be achieved and hence the efficiency droop can be reduced when a constant Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) nonradiative recombination lifetime is used for all the samples. However, the experimental results indicate that, though the efficiency droop is suppressed, the LED optical power is first improved and then degraded with the increasing QW number. The analysis of the measured external quantum efficiency (EQE) with the increasing current revealed that an increasingly dominant SRH nonradiative recombination is induced with more epitaxial QWs, which can be related to the defect generation due to the strain relaxation, especially when the effective thickness exceeds the critical thickness. These observations were further supported by the carrier lifetime measurement using a pico-second time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) system, which allowed for a revised numerical modeling with the different SRH lifetimes considered. This work provides useful guidelines on choosing the critical QW number when designing LED structures.

Observation of polarized gain from aligned colloidal nanorods.

In recent years, colloidal semiconductor nanorods have attracted great interest for polarized spontaneous emission. However, their polarized gain has not been possible to achieve so far. In this work we show the highly polarized stimulated emission from the densely packed ensembles of core-seeded nanorods in a cylindrical cavity. Here CdSe/CdS dot-in-rods were coated and aligned on the inner wall of a capillary tube, providing optical feedback for the nanorod gain medium. Results show that the polarized gain originates intrinsically from the aligned nanorods and not from the cavity and that the optical anisotropy of the nanorod ensemble was amplified with the capillary tube, resulting in highly polarized whispering gallery mode lasing. The highly polarized emission and lasing, together with easy fabrication and flexible incorporation, make this microlaser a promising candidate for important color conversion and enrichment applications including liquid crystal display backlighting and laser lighting.

Highly flexible, electrically driven, top-emitting, quantum dot light-emitting stickers.

Flexible information displays are key elements in future optoelectronic devices. Quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) with advantages in color quality, stability, and cost-effectiveness are emerging as a candidate for single-material, full color light sources. Despite the recent advances in QLED technology, making high-performance flexible QLEDs still remains a big challenge due to limited choices of proper materials and device architectures as well as poor mechanical stability. Here, we show highly efficient, large-area QLED tapes emitting in red, green, and blue (RGB) colors with top-emitting design and polyimide tapes as flexible substrates. The brightness and quantum efficiency are 20,000 cd/m(2) and 4.03%, respectively, the highest values reported for flexible QLEDs. Besides the excellent electroluminescence performance, these QLED films are highly flexible and mechanically robust to use as electrically driven light-emitting stickers by placing on or removing from any curved surface, facilitating versatile LED applications. Our QLED tapes present a step toward practical quantum dot based platforms for high-performance flexible displays and solid-state lighting.

Improving hole injection efficiency by manipulating the hole transport mechanism through p-type electron blocking layer engineering.

The p-type AlGaN electron blocking layer (EBL) is widely used in InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for electron overflow suppression. However, a typical EBL also reduces the hole injection efficiency, because holes have to climb over the energy barrier generated at the p-AlGaN/p-GaN interface before entering the quantum wells. In this work, to address this problem, we report the enhancement of hole injection efficiency by manipulating the hole transport mechanism through insertion of a thin GaN layer of 1 nm into the p-AlGaN EBL and propose an AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN-type EBL outperforming conventional AlGaN EBLs. Here, the position of the inserted thin GaN layer relative to the p-GaN region is found to be the key to enhancing the hole injection efficiency. InGaN/GaN LEDs with the proposed p-type AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN EBL have demonstrated substantially higher optical output power and external quantum efficiency.

On the mechanisms of InGaN electron cooler in InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes.

Electron overflow limits the quantum efficiency of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes. InGaN electron cooler (EC) can be inserted before growing InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) to reduce electron overflow. However, detailed mechanisms of how the InGaN EC contributes to the efficiency improvement have remained unclear so far. In this work, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate an electron mean-free-path model, which reveals the InGaN EC reduces the electron mean free path in MQWs, increases the electron capture rate and also reduces the valence band barrier heights of the MQWs, in turn promoting the hole transport into MQWs.

On the effect of N-GaN/P-GaN/N-GaN/P-GaN/N-GaN built-in junctions in the n-GaN layer for InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes.

N-GaN/P-GaN/N-GaN/P-GaN/N-GaN (NPNPN-GaN) junctions embedded between the n-GaN region and multiple quantum wells (MQWs) are systematically studied both experimentally and theoretically to increase the performance of InGaN/GaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) in this work. In the proposed architecture, each thin P-GaN layer sandwiched in the NPNPN-GaN structure is completely depleted due to the built-in electric field in the NPNPN-GaN junctions, and the ionized acceptors in these P-GaN layers serve as the energy barriers for electrons from the n-GaN region, resulting in a reduced electron over flow and enhanced the current spreading horizontally in the n- GaN region. These lead to increased optical output power and external quantum efficiency (EQE) from the proposed device.

Solution processed tungsten oxide interfacial layer for efficient hole-injection in quantum dot light-emitting diodes.

A highly efficient and stable QLED using an inorganic WO3 nanoparticle film as a hole injection layer is demonstrated.The resulting WO3 nanoparticle-based QLEDs also exhibit superior performance compared to that of the present PEDOT:PSS-based QLEDs. The results indicate that WO3 nanoparticles are promising solution-processed buffer layer materials and serve as a strong candidate for QLED technology towards the practical applications in the next-generation lighting and displays.

Stable, efficient, and all-solution-processed quantum dot light-emitting diodes with double-sided metal oxide nanoparticle charge transport layers.

An efficient and stable quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) with double-sided metal oxide (MO) nanoparticle (NP) charge transport layers is fabricated by utilizing the solution-processed tungsten oxide (WO3) and zinc oxide (ZnO) NPs as the hole and electron transport layers, respectively. Except for the electrodes, all other layers are deposited by a simple spin-coating method. The resulting MO NP-based QLEDs show excellent device performance, with a peak luminance of 21300 cd/m(2) at the emission wavelength of 516 nm, a maximal current efficiency of 4.4 cd/A, and a low turn-on voltage of 3 V. More importantly, with the efficient design of the device architecture, these devices exhibit a significant improvement in device stability and the operational lifetime of 95 h measured at room temperature can be almost 20-fold longer than that of the standard device.

Low thermal-mass LEDs: size effect and limits.

In this work, low thermal-mass LEDs (LTM-LEDs) were developed and demonstrated in flip-chip configuration, studying both experimentally and theoretically the enhanced electrical and optical characteristics and the limits. LTM-LED chips in 25 × 25 µm2, 50 × 50 µm2, 100 × 100 µm2 and 200 × 200 µm2 mesa sizes were fabricated and comparatively investigated. Here it was revealed that both the electrical and optical properties are improved by the decreasing chip size due to the reduced thermal mass. With a smaller chip size (from 200 µm to 50 µm), the device generally presents higher current density against the bias and higher power density against the current density. However, the 25 × 25 µm2 device behaves differently, limited by the fabrication margin limit of 10 µm. The underneath mechanisms of these observations are uncovered, and furthermore, based on the device model, it is proven that for a specific flip-chip fabrication process, the ideal size for LTM-LEDs with optimal power density performance can be identified.

Room-temperature larger-scale highly ordered nanorod imprints of ZnO film.

Room-temperature large-scale highly ordered nanorod-patterned ZnO films directly integrated on III-nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are proposed and demonstrated via low-cost modified nanoimprinting, avoiding a high-temperature process. with a 600 nm pitch on top of a critical 200 nm thick Imprinting ZnO nanorods of 200 nm in diameter and 200 nm in height continuous ZnO wetting layer, the light output power of the resulting integrated ZnO-nanorod-film/semi-transparent metal/GaN/InGaN LED shows a two-fold enhancement (100% light extraction efficiency improvement) at the injection current of 150 mA, in comparison with the conventional LED without the imprint film. The increased optical output is well explained by the enhanced light scattering and outcoupling of the ZnO-rod structures along with the wetting film, as verified by the numerical simulations. The wetting layer is found to be essential for better impedance matching. The current-voltage characteristics and electroluminescence measurements confirm that there is no noticeable change in the electrical or spectral properties of the final LEDs after ZnO-nanorod film integration. These results suggest that the low-cost high-quality large-scale ZnO-nanorod imprints hold great promise for superior LED light extraction.

A PN-type quantum barrier for InGaN/GaN light emitting diodes.

In this work, InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with PN-type quantum barriers are comparatively studied both theoretically and experimentally. A strong enhancement in the optical output power is obtained from the proposed device. The improved performance is attributed to the screening of the quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) in the quantum wells and improved hole transport across the active region. In addition, the enhanced overall radiative recombination rates in the multiple quantum wells and increased effective energy barrier height in the conduction band has substantially suppressed the electron leakage from the active region. Furthermore, the electrical conductivity in the proposed devices is improved. The numerical and experimental results are in excellent agreement and indicate that the PN-type quantum barriers hold great promise for high-performance InGaN/GaN LEDs.

Quantum dot light-emitting diode with quantum dots inside the hole transporting layers.

We report a hybrid, quantum dot (QD)-based, organic light-emitting diode architecture using a noninverted structure with the QDs sandwiched between hole transporting layers (HTLs) outperforming the reference device structure implemented in conventional noninverted architecture by over five folds and suppressing the blue emission that is otherwise observed in the conventional structure because of the excess electrons leaking towards the HTL. It is predicted in the new device structure that 97.44% of the exciton formation takes place in the QD layer, while 2.56% of the excitons form in the HTL. It is found that the enhancement in the external quantum efficiency is mainly due to the stronger confinement of exciton formation to the QDs.