Pressure-Induced Bandgap Engineering and Photoresponse Enhancing of Wurtzite CuInS2 Nanocrystals

Wurtzite CuInS2 exhibits great potential for optoelectronic applications because of its excellent optical properties and good stability. However, exploring effective strategy to simultaneously optimaze its optical and photoelectrical properties remains...

Bandgap engineering of α-Ga2O3 by hydrostatic, uniaxial, and equibiaxial strain

Ga2O3 is a wide bandgap semiconductor and an understanding of its bandgap tunability is required to broaden the potential range of Ga2O3 applications. In this study, the different bandgaps of α-Ga2O3 were calculated by performing first-principles calculations using the pseudopotential self-interaction correction method. The relationships between these bandgaps and the material's hydrostatic, uniaxial, and equibiaxial lattice strains were investigated. The direct and indirect bandgaps of strain-free α-Ga2O3 were 4.89 eV and 4.68 eV, respectively. These bandgap values changed linearly and negatively as a function of the hydrostatic strain. Under the uniaxial and equibiaxial strain conditions, the maximum bandgap appeared under application of a small compressive strain, and the bandgaps decreased symmetrically with increasing compressive and tensile strain around the maximum value.

TADF/RTP OLED organic emitters based on concaved N-PAHs with tunable intrinsic D-A electronic structure

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with centrally positioned nitrogen dopants possess a unique curved structure and strong electron-donating features. However, the lack of tools to synthetically affect their bandgap engineering and charge-transfer (CT) characteristic is detrimental to their future optoelectronics use because of usually low PLQY effi-ciency. Facing this challenge, we report on developing the first fully conjugated, curved N-PAHs containing phenazine terminus with the D-A electronic structures, which are herein studied as functional optoelectronic material. We evidence the influence of curvature on minimizing HOMO-LUMO overlap, which was severely reflected in small ΔEST values, in-dispensable to enhance the RISC rate constant. Within this approach, we evaluate the utility of the concaved system as TADF/RTP emitters which has not been explored so far in the context of non-planar N-PAHs. By variable accepting strength of phenazines employed, the photoluminescence quantum yields (ΦPL) were tuned, ranging from the lowest 9% up to the highest 86% with dinitrile terminus. As a proof of concept, solid-state OLED devices were constructed, exhibit-ing yellow to orange emission with the best maximum external EL quantum efficiency (EQE) of 12% for acceptor built up on 3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl decorated phenazine that is demonstrated for the first time for curved D-A embedded N-PAHs.

Gd-admixed (Lu,Gd)AlO3 single crystals: breakthrough in heavy perovskite scintillators

We report a breakthrough concept for a bulk single crystal as a heavy aluminum perovskite scintillator, where due to bandgap engineering by a balanced Gd admixture in a Lu cation sublattice, the scintillation performance dramatically increases. In an optimized composition of (Lu, Gd)AlO3:Ce (LuGdAP:Ce), the light yield approaches 21,000 phot/MeV, which is close to that of classical but much less dense YAP:Ce and 50% higher than the best LuYAP:Ce reported in the literature. Moreover, contrary to LuYAP:Ce, the LuGdAP host maintains a high effective atomic number close to that of LuAP:Ce (Zeff = 64.9), which is comparable to commercial LSO:Ce. An enormous decrease in afterglow on the millisecond time scale and acceleration in the rise time of the scintillation response further increase the application potential of the LuGdAP host. The related acceleration of the transfer stage in the scintillation mechanism due to diminishing electron trap depths is proven by thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL). Furthermore, we quantitatively characterize and model the energy transfer processes that are responsible for the change in the photoluminescence and scintillation decay kinetics of Ce3+ in the LuGdAP matrix. Such an innovative (Lu, Gd)AP:Ce scintillator will become competitive for use in applications that require heavy, fast, and high light yield bulk scintillators.

Substitutional synthesis of sub-nanometer InGaN/GaN quantum wells with high indium content

InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) with sub-nanometer thickness can be employed in short-period superlattices for bandgap engineering of efficient optoelectronic devices, as well as for exploiting topological insulator behavior in III-nitride semiconductors. However, it had been argued that the highest indium content in such ultra-thin QWs is kinetically limited to a maximum of 33%, narrowing down the potential range of applications. Here, it is demonstrated that quasi two-dimensional (quasi-2D) QWs with thickness of one atomic monolayer can be deposited with indium contents far exceeding this limit, under certain growth conditions. Multi-QW heterostructures were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, and their composition and strain were determined with monolayer-scale spatial resolution using quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopy in combination with atomistic calculations. Key findings such as the self-limited QW thickness and the non-monotonic dependence of the QW composition on the growth temperature under metal-rich growth conditions suggest the existence of a substitutional synthesis mechanism, involving the exchange between indium and gallium atoms at surface sites. The highest indium content in this work approached 50%, in agreement with photoluminescence measurements, surpassing by far the previously regarded compositional limit. The proposed synthesis mechanism can guide growth efforts towards binary InN/GaN quasi-2D QWs.