Energy-harvesting Light Source Arrays from Colloidal Double-Heterojunction Nanorods

随着对更多功能、更高性能和更小尺寸和重量的需求的不断增长，智能手机和平板电脑等设备的制造将不可避免地变得更加复杂和昂贵。它们的能源消耗，无论是在使用中还是在制造中，也将相应增加。最近的进展是使半导体变得非常小，以便其光学和电学性能可以通过其大小和形状进行调节，这使得制造具有高效率和新功能的高性能设备变得简单可行。例如，这种微小的半导体材料不仅可以发射光，还可以感测和收集光，这一特征可以被用来开发具有像素的显示器等设备，这些像素可以通过清除环境光来产生自身的能量。该项目旨在解决如何有效地将电子/电荷放入和放出这些可调半导体材料这一重要挑战--这是任何发光和光伏设备的关键第一步。在这里学到的知识将允许设计和制造具有多种功能的高性能LED像素阵列，例如太阳能采集和光传感，同时还可以作为光源。这里要应对的多方面挑战为参与的学生提供了充足的教育和培训机会，帮助他们更好地为成为跨学科领域的领导者做好准备。PI致力于在这一项目成果的基础上，加强教学，促进新兴科学技术的好处。胶体量子点的异质结构提供了改善设备性能和引入新能力的机会。这个项目的重点是胶体半导体纳米棒，它可以在量子点上形成双异质结。PI最近开发的这些材料已经被证明既可以发射光线，也可以收获光线。它们还可以进行溶液处理，为在任意基板上实现紧凑、节能的多功能设备阵列开辟了机会，从而为下一代显示、照明、通信和相关技术铺平了新的道路。要将这些材料整合到电子/光电子器件中，需要了解界面材料(如电荷传输层)如何影响载流子注入、提取、分离和复合。通过结合载流子动力学和器件物理的研究，该项目旨在阐明不同的电子和空穴传输层如何影响电致发光和光电流的产生。这些努力的结果将指导开发设计具有多种功能的下一代电子/光电子设备的最佳接口，特别是那些可以降低使用和制造中的能源消耗的设备。该项目的研究努力还将有助于创建新的讲座、本科实验室课程的实验和演示材料，以加强课堂教学并促进纳米科学和节能技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With ever-increasing demand for more function and higher performance with reduced size and weight, fabrication of devices like smart phones and tablets are inevitably going to be more complex and more expensive. Their energy consumption, both in use and in manufacturing, will also increase accordingly. Recent advances to make semiconductors so small that their optical and electrical properties can be tuned by their size and shape are allowing simple ways to fabricate high-performance devices with high efficiencies and new capabilities. For example, such tiny semiconductor materials may be made to not only emit but also sense and harvest light, a feature that can be exploited to develop devices such as displays with pixels that can generate its own power through scavenging ambient light. This project aims to address the important challenge of how electrons/charges can be efficiently placed in and out of these tunable semiconductor materials – a critical first step in any light emitting and photovoltaic devices. The knowledge gained here will allow design and fabrication of high-performance LED pixel arrays with multiple capabilities such as solar energy harvesting and light sensing while simultaneously being a light source. Multi-faceted challenges to be tackled here provide ample educational and training opportunities for the students involved, helping them be better prepared to become leaders in interdisciplinary fields. The PI is committed to building on the results of this project to enhance teaching and promote the benefits of emerging science and technologies.Heterostructures of colloidal quantum dots provide opportunities to improve device performance and to usher in new capabilities. This project focuses on colloidal semiconductor nanorods that allow a double heterojunction to be formed on a quantum dot. These materials that the PI has recently developed have been shown to both emit and harvest light. They can also be solution processed, opening up opportunities for compact, energy-efficient multifunctional device arrays on arbitrary substrates that can pave new paths to next generation of display, lighting, communication, and related technologies. Incorporating these materials into electronic/optoelectronic devices requires the understanding of how interfacing materials, such as charge transport layers, affect carrier injection, extraction, separation, and recombination. Through a combination of studies on carrier dynamics and device physics, this project aims to elucidate how different electron and hole transport layers affect electroluminescence and photocurrent generation. The results of these efforts will guide the development of optimum interfaces for designing the next generation of electronic/optoelectronics devices with multiple functionality, especially those that can reduce energy consumption both in use and in manufacturing. The research efforts of this project will also help to create new lectures, experiments for undergraduate laboratory courses, and demonstration materials that will enhance classroom teaching and promote nanoscience and energy-efficient technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteriaThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.