Themed collection Horizons Community Board Collection: Optical and Photonic Materials

Nanoscale Horizons Community Board members Xiaolu Zhuo and Qingchen Dong and Materials Horizons Community Board member Li Na Quan introduce this Horizons Community Board collection on materials and devices for optics and photonics.

The use of organic dyes, semiconductors, and plasmonic nanostructures are three of the most promising strategies to make lanthanide-doped nanoparticles brighter by means of increasing their absorption capabilities.

This article focuses on state-of-the-art technologies used in the research on materials, devices and processes to achieve high-performance QD-LEDs.

Thermally assisted delayed fluorescence (TADF) allows for efficient collection of both singlet and triplet excitons with both emitting through the singlet channel.  TADF opens the door to photo- and electroluminescence efficiencies close to 100%.

Schematic of the general process of small-angle X-ray scattering acquisition, fitting, and modeling to determine material parameters of nanoporous materials.

This review covers the main applications of copper indium sulfide quantum dots for bioimaging applications.

Polydopamine (PDA) fluorescent materials have recently gained much attention due to their unique physicochemical and biological properties.

We present a transient ODMR technique to detect and distinguish triplet states in opto-electronic and photovoltaic materials and devices.

The new concept of fabricating high-performance visible-blind narrowband UV photomultiplication-type organic photodetectors provides a necessary prerequisite for flexible wearable UV monitoring and other promising applications.

The brightness and hue of structural colors can be independently, continuously, and reversibly tuned in an aqueous suspension containing Fe₃O₄@poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) flexible photonic nanochains by changing the magnetic field and temperature.

Dexter quenching is a likely loss mechanism in hyperfluorescent OLEDS, but changes in delayed emission kinetics in analogous optical experiments come from something else.

Taking advantage of an innovative design concept, we present the synthesis of two novel two-dimensional (2D) hybrid organic–inorganic halide perovskites incorporating for the first time 100% of a photoactive tetrazine derivative as the organic component.

Quantitative cross-correlation of time-resolved spectroscopies in the visible/near-IR and microwave regions provides deeper understanding of photoinduced charge separation across donor/acceptor heterojunctions than either technique alone.

Scientific intuition can help anticipate the outcome of experiments, but machine learning based on data does not always support these assumptions. A direct comparison of human intelligence (HI) and AI suggests domain knowledge is not always enough.

Tricolored white lighting quantum dot-light-emitting diodes comprising three environmentally benign primary color emitters of II–VI blue and green ZnSeTe and I–III–VI red Zn–Cu–In–S QDs are demonstrated.

A simple π-conjugated oligomer nanotheranostic with intrinsic multifunctionality was developed for 808 nm laser-triggered effective NIR-II fluorescence/photoacoustic imaging and photodynamic/photothermal synergistic therapy.

Hybrid layered metal chalcogenide crystalline polymer hosts strongly anisotropic two-dimensional excitons with large binding energies.

A new photoactivation mechanism, photo-induced crystallization with emission enhancement, is developed based on an isoquinolinium salt with applications in mitochondria-targeting and photodynamic therapy.

A red quantum-dot light-emitting transistor with an EQE of 22.8% and a field-effect mobility of 3.1 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ is demonstrated.

Colloidal gold nanonails, exhibiting large electric field enhancement in the mid-infrared region, are synthesized for surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA).

Light-emitting diodes with an inkjet-printed active layer based on MAPbBr₃ perovskite are produced for the first time.

This work presents a new family of bio-hybrid light-emitting diodes (Bio-HLEDs) using all-bio color down-converting coatings that combine silk fibroin (SF) as a packaging matrix and fluorescent proteins (FPs) as emitters.

Photochromic microresonator arrays with whispering gallery mode fingerprints are successfully prepared, which function as high-security optical authentication microdevices.

We demonstrated a polarization-sensitive and flexible ultraviolet photodetector based on one-dimensional CsCu₂I₃ nanowires with a photocurrent anisotropy ratio of 3.16.

Lead-free Bi-based perovskite FA₃Bi₂X₉ (X = Cl, Br, and I) quantum dots (QDs) are synthesized for the first time at room temperature. The ligand-passivated FA₃Bi₂Br₉ QDs exhibit blue emission at 437 nm with photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) up to 52%.

Bio-inspired chiral nematic cellulose films with periodic surface grating structures exhibit optically programmable photonic–photonic coupling.

Scintillators detect ionising radiation by converting energy deposited in them to a proportional number of photons. They are omnipresent in large-scale technical applications around us. Here, we report excellent scintillation properties of perovskites at low temperatures providing the potential for a new generation of cryogenic scintillators. One intriguing option would be replacing current medical scintillation detectors with cryogenic perovskites that could achieve higher imaging resolutions, for example for diagnosing early-stage brain cancer.

RIR-MAPLE enables thin-film deposition of organic–inorganic materials with tunable synergistic photophysics.

A class of wide bandgap host materials is introduced as an alternative to carbazole-based hosts to enhance the efficiency and transport properties of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

The PLQE of QD films can be increased by the incorporation of a relatively small fraction of well-passivated acceptor QDs.