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

随着对更多功能、更高性能、更小尺寸和更轻重量的需求不断增长，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。它们在使用和制造过程中的能源消耗也将相应增加。最近的进展使半导体变得如此之小，以至于它们的光学和电学性质可以根据它们的大小和形状来调整，这使得制造具有高效率和新功能的高性能设备的方法变得简单。例如，这种微小的半导体材料不仅可以发射光，还可以感知和收集光，这一特性可以用于开发诸如具有像素的显示器之类的设备，这些设备可以通过清除环境光来产生自己的能量。该项目旨在解决如何有效地将电子/电荷放入和取出这些可调谐半导体材料的重要挑战-这是任何发光和光伏设备的关键第一步。在这里获得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，例如太阳能收集和光传感，同时作为光源。面对多方面的挑战，为学生提供了丰富的教育和培训机会，帮助他们更好地准备成为跨学科领域的领导者。该计划致力以该项目的成果为基础，加强教学及推广新兴科技的效益。胶体量子点的异质结构为提高器件性能和引入新功能提供了机会。这个项目的重点是胶体半导体纳米棒，它允许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能发射光又能吸收光。它们也可以溶液处理，为在任意基板上的紧凑，节能的多功能器件阵列开辟了机会，可以为下一代显示，照明，通信和相关技术铺平新的道路。将这些材料整合到电子/光电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、分离和重组。本项目结合载流子动力学和器件物理学的研究，旨在阐明不同的电子和空穴输运层对电致发光和光电流产生的影响。这些努力的结果将指导设计具有多种功能的下一代电子/光电器件的最佳接口的开发，特别是那些可以在使用和制造中降低能耗的接口。该项目的研究工作还将有助于创建新的讲座、本科实验课程的实验和演示材料，这些材料将加强课堂教学，促进纳米科学和节能技术。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.