To demonstrate their
new technology, researchers fabricated a novel 1mm device
(aka Robot Man) made
of yellow photonic-crystal-enhanced QDs. Every region of the
device has thousands
of quantum dots, each measuring about six nanometers.
Large-area integration of quantum dots and photonic crystals
produce brighter & more efficient light.
(August 8, 2015) Recently,
quantum dots (QDs)—nano-sized semiconductor particles that produce bright,
sharp, color light—have moved from the research lab into commercial products
like high-end TVs, e-readers, laptops, and even some LED lighting. However, QDs
are expensive to make so there’s a push to improve their performance and
efficiency, while lowering their fabrication costs.
A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign has recently produced some promising results toward that goal,
developing a new method to extract more efficient and polarized light from
quantum dots (QDs) over a large-scale area. Their method, which combines QD and
photonic crystal technology, could lead to brighter and more efficient mobile
phone, tablet, and computer displays, as well as enhanced LED lighting.
With funding from the Dow Chemical Company, the research
team--led by Brian Cunningham (ECE), Ralph Nuzzo (chemistry), and Andrew
Alleyne (MechSE)--embedded QDs in novel polymer materials that retain strong
quantum efficiency. They then used electrohydrodynamic jet (e-jet) printing
technology to precisely print the QD-embedded polymers onto photonic crystal
structures. This precision eliminates wasted QDs, which are expensive to make.