Stretchable Organometal‐Halide‐Perovskite Quantum‐Dot Light‐Emitting Diodes

Stretchable light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) and electroluminescent capacitors have been reported to potentially bring new opportunities to wearable electronics; however, these devices lack in efficiency and/or stretchability. Here, a stretchable organometal‐halide‐perovskite quantum‐dot LED with both high efficiency and mechanical compliancy is demonstrated. The hybrid device employs an ultrathin (<3 µm) LED structure conformed on a surface‐wrinkled elastomer substrate. Its luminescent efficiency is up to 9.2 cd A^?1, which is 70% higher than a control diode fabricated on the rigid indium tin oxide/glass substrate. Mechanical deformations up to 50% tensile strain do not induce significant loss of the electroluminescent property. The device can survive 1000 stretch–release cycles of 20% tensile strain with small fluctuations in electroluminescent performance.     

Indium Phosphide‐Based Quantum Dots with Shell‐Enhanced Absorption for Luminescent Down‐Conversion

It is shown that admixing small amounts of cadmium into the shell of InP/ZnSe core/shell quantum dots results in an increased absorption of blue light and a limited redshift of the band‐edge emission. These effects reflect the reduced bandgap of (Zn,Cd)Se alloys and their smaller conduction‐band offset with InP. Nevertheless, adjusting the InP core size enables InP/ZnSe and InP/(Zn,Cd)Se quantum dots with identical emission characteristics to be made. Processing both materials into remote phosphor disks, it is demonstrated that the shell‐enhanced absorbance of InP/(Zn,Cd)Se has the double benefit of suppressing self‐absorption and reducing the amount of quantum dots by weight needed to attain a given blue‐to‐red color conversion.     

Semiconductor‐Nanocrystals‐Based White Light‐Emitting Diodes

In response to the demands for energy and the concerns of global warming and climate change, energy efficient and environmentally friendly solid‐state lighting, such as white light‐emitting diodes (WLEDs), is considered to be the most promising and suitable light source. Because of their small size, high efficiency, and long lifetime, WLEDs based on colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (or quantum dots) are emerging as a completely new technology platform for the development of flat‐panel displays and solid‐state lighting, exhibiting the potential to replace the conventionally used incandescent and fluorescent lamps. This replacement can cut the ever‐increasing level of energy consumption, solve the problem of rapidly depleting fossil fuel reserves, and improve the quality of the global environment. In this review, the recent progress in semiconductor‐nanocrystals‐based WLEDs is highlighted, the different approaches for generating white light are compared, and the benefits and challenges of the solid‐state lighting technology are discussed.     

Aqueous‐Phase Synthesis of Highly Luminescent CdTe/ZnTe Core/Shell Quantum Dots Optimized for Targeted Bioimaging

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have traditionally been synthesized in organic phase and transferred to aqueous solution by functionalizing their surface with silica, polymers, short‐chain thiol ligand, or phospholipid micelles. However, these complex steps result in i) a reduction of the quantum yield (QY) of QDs, ii) partial degrdation of the QDs, and iii) a drastic increase in the hydrodynamic size of QDs, which may hinder their biomedical applications. In this work, the fabrication and applications of cysteine‐capped CdTe/ZnTe QDs, which are directly synthesized in aqueous media, as optical probes for specific targeting of pancreatic and esophageal cancer cells in vitro are reported, as well as their capability for in vivo imaging. The CdTe/ZnTe QDs are synthesized in a one‐pot method and capped with amino acid cysteine, which contains both carboxyl and amine functional groups on their surfaces for bioconjugation. The fabricated QDs have an ultrasmall hydrodynamic diameter (3–5 nm), possess high QY (52%), and are non‐toxic to cells at experimental dosages. Confocal imaging is used to demonstrate a receptor‐mediated uptake of antibody‐conjugated QDs into pancreatic cancer cells in vitro. In vitro cytotoxicity studies (MTS‐assay) show that the IC₅₀ value of these QDs is ≈160 µg mL^?1, demonstrating low toxicity. In addition, the QDs are used for small‐animal imaging where the in vivo biocompatiblity of these QDs and their clearance following systemic injection is studied.     

Second‐Harmonic Generation from a Single Core/Shell Quantum Dot

Nanoparticles emitting two‐photon luminescence are broadly used as photostable emitters for nonlinear microscopy. Second‐harmonic generation (SHG) as another two‐photon mechanism offers complementary optical properties but the reported sizes of nanoparticles are still large, of a few tens of nanometers. Herein, coherent SHG from single core/shell CdTe/CdS nanocrystals with a diameter of 10 to 15 nm is reported. The nanocrystal excitation spectrum reveals resonances in the nonlinear efficiency with an overall maximum at about 970 nm. Polarization analysis of the second‐harmonic emission confirms the expected zinc blende symmetry, and allows extraction of the three‐dimensional nanocrystal orientation. The small size of these nonlinearly active quantum dots, together with the intrinsic coherence and orientation sensitivity of the SHG process, are well adapted for ultrafast probing of optical near‐fields with high resolution as well as for orientation tracking for bioimaging applications.