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In the next decade, we will witness the replacement of a majority of conventional light sources with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Efficient LEDs other than phosphors can enhance their functionality and meet different lighting needs. Quantum dots (QDs) have high potential for future LED technology due to their sensitive band-gap tuning via the quantum confinement effect and compositional control, high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), and mass-production capacity. Herein, we demonstrate white LEDs using QDs that reach over 150 lumens per electrical Watt. For that we synthesized green-and red-emitting ZnCdSe/ZnSe core/shell QDs by low-temperature nucleation, high-temperature shell formation, and postsynthetic trap-state removal. Their cadmium concentration is lower than 100 ppm, satisfying the current EU RoHS regulations, and their PLQY reaches a high level of 94%. The PLQY of QDs is maintained within the device on blue LED via liquid injection, and their integration at optimized optical densities leads to 129.6 and 170.4 lm/W for red-green-blue (RGB)-and green-blue (GB)-based white LEDs, respectively. Our simulations further showed that an efficiency level of over 230 lm/W is achievable using ultraefficient blue LED pumps. The simple fabrication and high performance of white LEDs using QD liquids show high promise for next-generation lighting devices., Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK); Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA-GEBIP) The Young Scientist Award Program; Science Academy of Turkey (BAGEP) The Young Scientist Award Program; Bilim Kahramanlari Dernegi The Young Scientist Award

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) emitting in the infrared (IR) are promising building blocks for numerous photonic, optoelectronic and biomedical applications owing to their low-cost solution-processability and tunable emission. Among them, lead- and mercury-based QDs are currently the most developed materials. Yet, due to toxicity issues, the scientific community is focusing on safer alternatives. In this regard, indium arsenide (InAs) QDs are one of the best candidates as they can absorb and emit light in the whole near infrared spectral range and they are RoHS-compliant, with recent trends suggesting that there is a renewed interest in this class of materials. This review focuses on colloidal InAs QDs and aims to provide an up-to-date overview spanning from their synthesis and surface chemistry to post-synthesis modifications. We provide a comprehensive overview from initial synthetic methods to the most recent developments on the ability to control the size, size distribution, electronic properties and carrier dynamics. Then, we describe doping and alloying strategies applied to InAs QDs as well as InAs based heterostructures. Furthermore, we present the state-of-the-art applications of InAs QDs, with a particular focus on bioimaging and field effect transistors. Finally, we discuss open challenges and future perspectives.

Layer-by-layer fabrication of CsPbX3 (where X = Cl, Br or I) nanocrystal films enabled by solid-state ligand exchange.

The most developed approaches for the synthesis of InAs nanocrystals (NCs) rely on pyrophoric, toxic, and not readily available tris-trimethylsilyl (or tris-trimethylgermil) arsine precursors. Less toxic and commercially available chemicals, such as tris(dimethylamino)arsine, have recently emerged as alternative As precursors. Nevertheless, InAs NCs made with such compounds need to be further optimized in terms of size distribution and optical properties in order to meet the standard reached with tris-trimethylsilyl arsine. To this aim, in this work we investigated the role of ZnCl

We developed quantum dot (QD) based color-conversion white LEDs that reach over 150 lumens per electrical Watt. For that we synthesized alloyed ZnCdSe/ZnSe QDs with 94% of quantum efficiency and injected QD-liquids on blue LEDs.

We demonstrate efficient, stable, and fully RoHS-compliant near-infrared (NIR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on InAs/ZnSe quantum dots (QDs) synthesized by employing a commercially available amino-As precursor. They have a record external quantum efficiency of 5.5% at 947 nm and an operational lifetime of ∼32 h before reaching 50% of their initial luminance. Our findings offer a new solution for developing RoHS-compliant light-emitting technologies based on Pb-free colloidal QDs.

Green spectral range, which has the highest human eye sensitivity, is one of the most fundamental colors in lighting and display. Quantum dots (QDs) offer exceptional optical properties including high quantum yield (QY), strong absorption, and narrow emission linewidths for efficient green-emitting diodes. In this article, we demonstrated QD-based light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) that operate at a luminous efficiency (LE) level of 95 lumens per electrical watt, the luminous efficacy of optical radiation of 409 lumens per optical watt, and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 23.3 % in the green spectral region. For that, we synthesized 1-octanethiol-capped CdSe/ZnS QDs with an absolute QY of 91 % and integrated them in a liquid matrix that allows conservation of the QD efficiency in device architecture. Our simulations were in agreement with the performance of the fabricated QD-LEDs, and they showed that the QD-LEDs can be further improved to reach LE levels over 250 lm/W.

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 639846). AlSb is a less studied member of the III-V semiconductor family, and herein, we report the colloidal synthesis of AlSb quantum dots (QDs) for the first time. Different sizes of colloidal AlSb QDs (5 to 9 nm) were produced by the controlled reaction of AlCl3 and Sb[N(Si(Me)(3))(2)](3) in the presence of superhydride. These colloidal AlSb quantum dots showed excitonic transitions in the UV-A region and a tunable band edge emission (quantum yield of up to 18%) in the blue spectral range. Among all III-V quantum dots, these quantum dots show the brightest core emission in the blue spectral region. European Research Council (ERC) 639846

It is a generally accepted perspective that type-II nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs) have low quantum yield due to the separation of the electron and hole wavefunctions. Recently, high quantum yield levels were reported for cadmium-based typeII QDs. Hence, the quest for finding non-toxic and efficient type-II QDs is continuing. Herein, we demonstrate environmentally benign type-II InP/ZnO/ZnS core/shell/shell QDs that reach a high quantum yield of similar to 91%. For this, ZnO layer was grown on core InP QDs by thermal decomposition, which was followed by a ZnS layer via successive ionic layer adsorption. The small-angle Xray scattering shows that spherical InP core and InP/ZnO core/ shell QDs turn into elliptical particles with the growth of the ZnS shell. To conserve the quantum efficiency of QDs in device architectures, InP/ZnO/ZnS QDs were integrated in the liquid state on blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as down-converters that led to an external quantum efficiency of 9.4% and a power conversion efficiency of 6.8%, respectively, which is the most efficient QD-LED using type-II QDs. This study pointed out that cadmium-free type-II QDs can reach high efficiency levels, which can stimulate novel forms of devices and nanomaterials for bioimaging, display, and lighting., European Union;Horizon 2020; European Research Council (ERC); Research and Innovation Programme; Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA-GEBIP), Young Scientist Award Program; Science Academy of Turkey (BAGEP), The Young Scientist Award Program; Bilim Kahramanlari Dernegi, Young Scientist Award Program

We report a one-step synthesis of halide perovskite nanocrystals embedded in amphiphilic polymer (poly(acrylic acid)-block-poly(styrene), PAA-b-PS) micelles, based on injecting a dimethylformamide solution of PAA-b-PS, PbBr2, ABr (A = Cs, formamidinium, or both) and “additive” molecules in toluene. These bifunctional or trifunctional short chain organic molecules improve the nanocrystal–polymer compatibility, increasing the nanocrystal stability against polar solvents and high flux irradiation (the nanocrystals retain almost 80% of their photoluminescence after 1 h of 3.2 w/cm2 irradiation). If the nanocrystals are suspended in toluene, the coil state of the polymer allows the nanocrystals to undergo halide exchange, enabling emission color tunability. If the nanocrystals are suspended in methanol, or dried as powders, the polymer is in the globule state, and they are inert to halide exchange. By mixing three primary colors we could prepare stable, multicolor emissive samples (for example, white emitting powders) and a UV-to-white color converting layer for light-emitting diodes entirely made of perovskite nanocrystals.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) absorb large-area solar radiation and guide down-converted emission to solar cells for electricity production. Quantum dots (QDs) have been widely engineered at device and quantum dot levels for LSCs. Here, we demonstrate cascaded energy transfer and exciton recycling at nanoassembly level for LSCs. The graded structure composed of different sized toxic-heavy-metal-free InP/ZnS core/shell QDs incorporated on copper doped InP QDs, facilitating exciton routing toward narrow band gap QDs at a high nonradiative energy transfer efficiency of 66%. At the final stage of non-radiative energy transfer, the photogenerated holes make ultrafast electronic transitions to copper-induced mid-gap states for radiative recombination in the near-infrared. The exciton recycling facilitates a photoluminescence quantum yield increase of 34% and 61% in comparison with semi-graded and ungraded energy profiles, respectively. Thanks to the suppressed reabsorption and enhanced photoluminescence quantum yield, the graded LSC achieved an optical quantum efficiency of 22.2%. Hence, engineering at nanoassembly level combined with nonradiative energy transfer and exciton funneling offer promise for efficient solar energy harvesting., European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; European Research Council (ERC); Research and Innovation Programme

The article “Exciton recycling via InP quantum dot funnels for luminescent solar concentrators” written by Houman Bahmani Jalali1,§, Sadra Sadeghi2,§, Isinsu Baylam3,4, Mertcan Han5, Cleva W. Ow-Yang6, Alphan Sennaroglu3,4, and Sedat Nizamoglu1,2,5 (✉), was originally published Online First without Open Access. After publication online first, the author decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an Open Access publication. Therefore, the copyright of the article has been changed to © The Author(s) 2020 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.The original article has been corrected.

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are intriguing materials due to their outstanding properties like spectral tunabilty, high quantum efficiency, narrow emission spectra and solution processability. Many past and on-going researches on quantum dot light-emitting devices (QLEDs) have led to achieving efficiency levels comparable to organic LEDs and semiconductor LEDs. However, most QLED studies are based on toxic QDs, which raises concerns about environmental and health issues. Our study demonstrates the application of a new non-toxic nanomaterial, InP/ZnO QDs, to LEDs. Integrating InP/ZnO QDs into device architecture, we produced low turn-on voltage (2.8 V), saturated color devices, which have luminance levels (600 cd/m2) suitable for display technology.

Efficient transduction of optical energy to bioelectrical stimuli is an important goal for effective communication with biological systems. For that plasmonics has significant potential via boosting the light-matter interactions. However, plasmonics has been primarily used for heat-induced cell stimulation due to membrane capacitance change (i.e., optocapacitance). Instead, here we demonstrate that plasmonic coupling to photocapacitor biointerfaces improves safe and efficacious neuromodulating displacement charges for an average of 185% in the entire visible spectrum while maintaining the Faradaic currents below 1%. Hot-electron injection dominantly leads the enhancement of displacement current at blue spectral window, and nanoantenna effect is mainly responsible for the improvement at red-spectral region. The plasmonic photocapacitor facilitates wireless modulation of single cells at 3-orders of magnitude below the maximum retinal intensity levels corresponding to one of the most sensitive optoelectronic neural interfaces. This study introduces a new way of using plasmonics for safe and effective photostimulation of neurons and paves the way toward ultra-sensitive plasmon-assisted neurostimulation devices.

Efficient transduction of optical energy to bioelectrical stimuli is an important goal for effective communication with biological systems. For that, plasmonics has a significant potential via boosting the light-matter interactions. However, plasmonics has been primarily used for heat-induced cell stimulation due to membrane capacitance change (i.e., optocapacitance). Instead, here, we demonstrate that plasmonic coupling to photocapacitor biointerfaces improves safe and efficacious neuromodulating displacement charges for an average of 185% in the entire visible spectrum while maintaining the faradic currents below 1%. Hot-electron injection dominantly leads the enhancement of displacement current in the blue spectral window, and the nanoantenna effect is mainly responsible for the improvement in the red spectral region. The plasmonic photocapacitor facilitates wireless modulation of single cells at three orders of magnitude below the maximum retinal intensity levels, corresponding to one of the most sensitive optoelectronic neural interfaces. This study introduces a new way of using plasmonics for safe and effective photostimulation of neurons and paves the way toward ultrasensitive plasmon-assisted neurostimulation devices., European Research Council (ERC); European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; Turkish Academy of Sciences; Science Academy of Turkey

In recent years, luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) have received renewed attention as a versatile platform for large-area, high-efficiency, and low-cost solar energy harvesting. So far, artificial or engineered optical materials, such as rare-earth ions, organic dyes, and colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have been incorporated into LSCs. Incorporation of nontoxic materials into efficient device architectures is critical for environmental sustainability and clean energy production. Here, we demonstrated LSCs based on fluorescent proteins, which are biologically produced, ecofriendly, and edible luminescent biomaterials along with exceptional optical properties. We synthesized mScarlet fluorescent proteins in Escherichia coli expression system, which is the brightest protein with a quantum yield of 61% in red spectral region that matches well with the spectral response of silicon solar cells. Moreover, we integrated fluorescent proteins in an aqueous medium into solar concentrators, which preserved their quantum efficiency in LSCs and separated luminescence and wave-guiding regions due to refractive index contrast for efficient energy harvesting. Solar concentrators based on mScarlet fluorescent proteins achieved an external LSC efficiency of 2.58%, and the integration at high concentrations increased their efficiency approaching to 5%, which may facilitate their use as "luminescent solar curtains" for in-house applications. The liquid-state integration of proteins paves a way toward efficient and "green" solar energy harvesting.

Neural photostimulation has high potential to understand the working principles of complex neural networks and develop novel therapeutic methods for neurological disorders. A key issue in the light-induced cell stimulation is the efficient conversion of light to bioelectrical stimuli. In photosynthetic systems developed in millions of years by nature, the absorbed energy by the photoabsorbers is transported via nonradiative energy transfer to the reaction centers. Inspired by these systems, neural interfaces based on biocompatible quantum funnels are developed that direct the photogenerated charge carriers toward the bionanojunction for effective photostimulation. Funnels are constructed with indium-based rainbow quantum dots that are assembled in a graded energy profile. Implementation of a quantum funnel enhances the generated photoelectrochemical current 215% per unit absorbance in comparison with ungraded energy profile in a wireless and free-standing mode and facilitates optical neuromodulation of a single cell. This study indicates that the control of charge transport at nanoscale can lead to unconventional and effective neural interfaces., European Research Council (ERC); European Union (EU); Horizon 2020; Research and Innovation Programme; Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA-GEBİP; The Young Scientist Award Program); Science Academy of Turkey (BAGEP; The Young Scientist Award Program)

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 639846). We thank KUYTAM (Koc University Surface Science and Technology Center) for providing XRD and UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer infrastructures. We also thank Dr. Ceren Yilmaz Akkaya for XRD and Prof. Havva Funda Acar Yagci for the PL measurement. Light-induced stimulation of neurons via photoactive surfaces offers rich opportunities for the development of therapeutic methods and high-resolution retinal prosthetic devices. Quantum dots serve as an attractive building block for such surfaces, as they can be easily functionalized to match the biocompatibility and charge transport requirements of cell stimulation. Although indium based colloidal quantum dots with type-I band alignment have attracted significant attention as a nontoxic alternative to cadmium-based ones, little attention has been paid to their photovoltaic potential as type-II heterostructures. Herein, we demonstrate type-II indium phosphide/zinc oxide core/shell quantum dots that are incorporated into a photoelectrode structure for neural photostimulation. This induces a hyperpolarizing bioelectrical current that triggers the firing of a single neural cell at 4 mu W mm(-2), 26-fold lower than the ocular safety limit for continuous exposure to visible light. These findings show that nanomaterials can induce a biocompatible and effective biological junction and can introduce a route in the use of quantum dots in photoelectrode architectures for artificial retinal prostheses. European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme - 639846

Herein, we demonstrate that the structural and optical control of InP-based quantum dots (QDs) can lead to high-performance light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Zinc sulphide (ZnS) shells passivate the InP QD core and increase the quantum yield in green-emitting QDs by 13-fold and red-emitting QDs by 8-fold. The optimised QDs are integrated in the liquid state to eliminate aggregation-induced emission quenching and we fabricated white LEDs with a warm, neutral and cool-white appearance by the down-conversion mechanism. The QD-functionalized white LEDs achieve luminous efficiency (LE) up to 14.7 lm W−1 and colour-rendering index up to 80. The structural and optical control of InP/ZnS core/shell QDs enable 23-fold enhancement in LE of white LEDs compared to ones containing only QDs of InP core.

A single transverse mode distributed feedback laser is reported where the gain medium is composed enhanced green fluorescent protein in silk fibroin matrix. Moreover, optical feedback is increased with a high refractive index TiO2 layer.

Interparticle energy transfer offers great promise to a diverse range of applications ranging from artificial solar energy harvesting to nanoscale rulers in biology. Here, we assembled InP/ZnS core/shell quantum dot monolayers via the Langmuir–Blodgett technique and studied the effect of ZnS shell thickness on the excitonic energy transfer within these core/shell quantum dots. Three types of InP-based core/shell quantum dot Langmuir–Blodgett assemblies with different ZnS shell thicknesses were assembled. The structural and optical properties of colloidal quantum dots reveal the successful multiple ZnS shell growth, and atomic force microscopy studies show the smoothness of the assembled monolayers. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) studies of the thick-shell QD monolayer reveal narrower lifetime distribution in comparison with the thin-shell QD monolayer. The interparticle excitonic energy transfer was studied by spectrally resolved PL traces, and higher energy transfer was observed for the thin-shell InP/1ZnS QD monolayer. Finally, we calculated the average exciton energy and indicated that the energy transfer induced exciton energy shift decreased significantly from 95 to 27 meV after multiple ZnS shell growth.

Here, we report a single transverse mode distributed feedback (DFB) protein laser. The gain medium that is composed of enhanced green fluorescent protein in a silk fibroin matrix yields a waveguiding gain layer on a DFB resonator. The thin TiO2 layer on the quartz grating improves optical feedback due to the increased effective refractive index. The protein laser shows a single transverse mode lasing at the wavelength of 520 nm with the threshold level of 92.1 mu J/mm(2)., Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK); Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (PROTEINLED); National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have attracted significant attention in the last three decades due to high quantum yield (QY) and tunable electronic properties via quantum confinement effect and material composition. However, their utilization for efficient solid-state lighting sources has remained a challenge due to the decrease of QY from the synthesis batch in the liquid state to the host matrix in the solid state, which is also known as the host material effect. Here, we suppress the host material effect by simple liquid-state integration in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that lead to a luminous efficiency of 64 lm/W for red, green, blue (RGB)-based and 105 lm/W for green, blue (GB)-based white light generation. For that, we maximized the QY of red- and green-emitting QDs by optimizing synthesis parameters and integrated efficient QDs with QY up to 84% on blue LED dies in liquid form at appropriate injection amounts for high-efficiency white lighting. Liquid-state integration showed two-fold and six-fold enhancement of efficiency in comparison with incorporation of QDs in polydixnethylsiloxane film and close-packed formation, respectively. Our theoretical calculations predicted that the luminous efficiency of liquid QD-LEDs can reach over 200 lm/W. Therefore, this study paves the way toward ultra-high-efficiency QD-based lighting. (C)2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) show promise because of their potential for low-cost, large-area, and high-efficiency energy harvesting. Stokes shift engineering of luminescent quantum dots (QDs) is a favorable approach to suppress reabsorption losses in LSCs; however, the use of highly toxic heavy metals in QDs constitutes a serious concern for environmental sustainability. Here, we report LSCs based on cadmium-free InP/ZnO core/shell QDs with type-II band alignment that allow for the suppression of reabsorption by Stokes shift engineering. The spectral emission and absorption overlap was controlled by the growth of a ZnO shell on an InP core. At the same time, the ZnO layer also facilitates the photostability of the QDs within the host matrix. We analyzed the optical performance of indium-based LSCs and identified the optical efficiency as 1.45%. The transparency, flexibility, and cadmium-free content of the LSCs hold promise for solar window applications.

We report a one-step synthesis of halide perovskite nanocrystals embedded in amphiphilic polymer (poly(acrylic acid)-block-poly(styrene), PAA-b-PS) micelles, based on injecting a dimethylformamide solution of PAA-b-PS, PbBr2, ABr (A = Cs, formamidinium, or both) and "additive" molecules in toluene. These bifunctional or trifunctional short chain organic molecules improve the nanocrystal-polymer compatibility, increasing the nanocrystal stability against polar solvents and high flux irradiation (the nanocrystals retain almost 80% of their photoluminescence after 1 h of 3.2 w/cm2 irradiation). If the nanocrystals are suspended in toluene, the coil state of the polymer allows the nanocrystals to undergo halide exchange, enabling emission color tunability. If the nanocrystals are suspended in methanol, or dried as powders, the polymer is in the globule state, and they are inert to halide exchange. By mixing three primary colors we could prepare stable, multicolor emissive samples (for example, white emitting powders) and a UV-to-white color converting layer for light-emitting diodes entirely made of perovskite nanocrystals.