Self-Resonant Microlasers of Colloidal Quantum Wells Constructed by Direct Deep Patterning

Stimuli-Responsive Surface Ligands for Direct Lithography of Functional Inorganic Nanomaterials

ConspectusColloidal nanocrystals (NCs) have emerged as a diverse class of materials with tunable composition, size, shape, and surface chemistry. From their facile syntheses to unique optoelectronic properties, these solution-processed nanomaterials are a promising alternative to materials grown as bulk crystals or by vapor-phase methods. However, the integration of colloidal nanomaterials in real-world devices is held back by challenges in making patterned NC films with the resolution, throughput, and cost demanded by device components and applications. Therefore, suitable approaches to pattern NCs need to be established to aid the transition from individual proof-of-concept NC devices to integrated and multiplexed technological systems.In this Account, we discuss the development of stimuli-sensitive surface ligands that enable NCs to be patterned directly with good pattern fidelity while retaining desirable properties. We focus on rationally selected ligands that enable changes in the NC dispersibility by responding to light, electron beam, and/or heat. First, we summarize the fundamental forces between colloidal NCs and discuss the principles behind NC stabilization/destabilization. These principles are applied to understanding the mechanisms of the NC dispersibility change upon stimuli-induced ligand modifications. Six ligand-based patterning mechanisms are introduced: ligand cross-linking, ligand decomposition, ligand desorption, in situ ligand exchange, ion/ligand binding, and ligand-aided increase of ionic strength. We discuss examples of stimuli-sensitive ligands that fall under each mechanism, including their chemical transformations, and address how these ligands are used to pattern either sterically or electrostatically stabilized colloidal NCs. Following that, we explain the rationale behind the exploration of different types of stimuli, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each stimulus.We then discuss relevant figures-of-merit that should be considered when choosing a particular ligand chemistry or stimulus for patterning NCs. These figures-of-merit pertain to either the pattern quality (e.g., resolution, edge and surface roughness, layer thickness), or to the NC material quality (e.g., photo/electro-luminescence, electrical conductivity, inorganic fraction). We outline the importance of these properties and provide insights on optimizing them. Both the pattern quality and NC quality impact the performance of patterned NC devices such as field-effect transistors, light-emitting diodes, color-conversion pixels, photodetectors, and diffractive optical elements. We also give examples of proof-of-concept patterned NC devices and evaluate their performance. Finally, we provide an outlook on further expanding the chemistry of stimuli-sensitive ligands, improving the NC pattern quality, progress toward 3D printing, and other potential research directions. Ultimately, we hope that the development of a patterning toolbox for NCs will expedite their implementation in a broad range of applications.

Highly-Directional, Highly-Efficient Solution-Processed Light-Emitting Diodes of All-Face-Down Oriented Colloidal Quantum Well Self-Assembly

Semiconductor colloidal quantum wells (CQWs) provide anisotropic emission behavior originating from their anisotropic optical transition dipole moments (TDMs). Here, solution-processed colloidal quantum well light-emitting diodes (CQW-LEDs) of a single all-face-down oriented self-assembled monolayer (SAM) film of CQWs that collectively enable a supreme level of IP TDMs at 92% in the ensemble emission are shown. This significantly enhances the outcoupling efficiency from 22% (of standard randomly-oriented emitters) to 34% (of face-down oriented emitters) in the LED. As a result, the external quantum efficiency reaches a record high level of 18.1% for the solution-processed type of CQW-LEDs, putting their efficiency performance on par with the hybrid organic-inorganic evaporation-based CQW-LEDs and all other best solution-processed LEDs. This SAM-CQW-LED architecture allows for a high maximum brightness of 19,800 cd m^-2 with a long operational lifetime of 247 h at 100 cd m^-2 as well as a stable saturated deep-red emission (651 nm) with a low turn-on voltage of 1.7 eV at a current density of 1 mA cm^-2 and a high J₉₀ of 99.58 mA cm^-2 . These findings indicate the effectiveness of oriented self-assembly of CQWs as an electrically-driven emissive layer in improving outcoupling and external quantum efficiencies in the CQW-LEDs.

2D II-VI Semiconductor Nanoplatelets: From Material Synthesis to Optoelectronic Integration

The field of colloidal synthesis of semiconductors emerged 40 years ago and has reached a certain level of maturity thanks to the use of nanocrystals as phosphors in commercial displays. In particular, II-VI semiconductors based on cadmium, zinc, or mercury chalcogenides can now be synthesized with tailored shapes, composition by alloying, and even as nanocrystal heterostructures. Fifteen years ago, II-VI semiconductor nanoplatelets injected new ideas into this field. Indeed, despite the emergence of other promising semiconductors such as halide perovskites or 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, colloidal II-VI semiconductor nanoplatelets remain among the narrowest room-temperature emitters that can be synthesized over a wide spectral range, and they exhibit good material stability over time. Such nanoplatelets are scientifically and technologically interesting because they exhibit optical features and production advantages at the intersection of those expected from colloidal quantum dots and epitaxial quantum wells. In organic solvents, gram-scale syntheses can produce nanoparticles with the same thicknesses and optical properties without inhomogeneous broadening. In such nanoplatelets, quantum confinement is limited to one dimension, defined at the atomic scale, which allows them to be treated as quantum wells. In this review, we discuss the synthetic developments, spectroscopic properties, and applications of such nanoplatelets. Covering growth mechanisms, we explain how a thorough understanding of nanoplatelet growth has enabled the development of nanoplatelets and heterostructured nanoplatelets with multiple emission colors, spatially localized excitations, narrow emission, and high quantum yields over a wide spectral range. Moreover, nanoplatelets, with their large lateral extension and their thin short axis and low dielectric surroundings, can support one or several electron-hole pairs with large exciton binding energies. Thus, we also discuss how the relaxation processes and lifetime of the carriers and excitons are modified in nanoplatelets compared to both spherical quantum dots and epitaxial quantum wells. Finally, we explore how nanoplatelets, with their strong and narrow emission, can be considered as ideal candidates for pure-color light emitting diodes (LEDs), strong gain media for lasers, or for use in luminescent light concentrators.

Facet Engineering for Amplified Spontaneous Emission in Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals

Auger recombination and thermalization time are detrimental in reducing the gain threshold of optically pumped semiconductor nanocrystal (NC) lasers for future on-chip nanophotonic devices. Here, we report the design strategy of facet engineering to reduce the gain threshold of amplified spontaneous emission by manyfold in NCs of the same concentration and edge length. We achieved this hallmark result by controlling the Auger recombination rates dominated by processes involving NC volume and thermalization time to the emitting states by optimizing the number of facets from 6 (cube) to 12 (rhombic dodecahedron) and 26 (rhombicuboctahedrons) in CsPbBr₃ NCs. For instance, we demonstrate a 2-fold reduction in Auger recombination rates and thermalization time with increased number of facets. The gain threshold can be further reduced ∼50% by decreasing the sample temperature to 4 K. Our systematic studies offer a new method to reduce the gain threshold that ultimately forms the basis of nanolasers.

Ligand-Free Direct Optical Lithography of Bare Colloidal Nanocrystals via Photo-Oxidation of Surface Ions with Porosity Control

Microscale patterning of colloidal nanocrystal (NC) films is important for their integration in devices. Here, we introduce the direct optical patterning of all-inorganic NCs without the use of additional photosensitive ligands or additives. We determined that photoexposure of ligand-stripped, "bare" NCs in air significantly reduces their solubility in polar solvents due to photo-oxidation of surface ions. Doses as low as 20 mJ/cm² could be used; the only obvious criterion for material selection is that the NCs need to have significant absorption at the irradiation wavelength. However, transparent NCs can still be patterned by mixing them with suitably absorbing NCs. This approach enabled the patterning of bare ZnSe, CdSe, ZnS, InP, CeO₂, CdSe/CdS, and CdSe/ZnS NCs as well as mixtures of ZrO₂ or HfO₂ NCs with ZnSe NCs. Optical, X-ray photoelectron, and infrared spectroscopies show that solubility loss results from desorption of bound solvent due to photo-oxidation of surface ions. We also demonstrate two approaches, compatible with our patterning method, for modulating the porosity and refractive index of NC films. Block copolymer templating decreases the film density, and thus the refractive index, by introducing mesoporosity. Alternatively, hot isostatic pressing increases the packing density and refractive index of NC layers. For example, the packing fraction of a ZnS NC film can be increased from 0.51 to 0.87 upon hot isostatic pressing at 450 °C and 15 000 psi. Our findings demonstrate that direct lithography by photo-oxidation of bare NC surfaces is an accessible patterning method for facilitating the exploration of more complex NC device architectures while eliminating the influence of bulky or insulating surfactants.

All-colloidal parity-time-symmetric microfiber lasers balanced between the gain of colloidal quantum wells and the loss of colloidal metal nanoparticles

Lasers based on semiconductor colloidal quantum wells (CQWs) have attracted wide attention, thanks to their facile solution-processability, low threshold and wide range spectral tunability. Colloidal microlasers based on whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonators have already been widely demonstrated. However, due to their microscale size typically supporting multiple modes, they suffer from multimode competition and higher threshold. The ability to control the multiplicity of modes oscillating within colloidal laser resonators and achieving single-mode lasers is of fundamental importance in many photonic applications. Here we show that as a unique, simple and versatile architecture of all-colloidal lasers intrinsically enabled by balanced gain/loss segments, the lasing threshold reduction and spectral purification can be readily achieved in a system of a WGM-supported microfiber cavity by harnessing the notions of parity-time symmetry (PT). In particular, we demonstrate a proof-of-concept PT-symmetric microfiber laser employing CQWs as the colloidal gain medium along with a carefully tuned nanocomposite of Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) incorporated into a PMMA matrix altogether and conveniently coated around a coreless microfiber as a rigorously tailored colloidal loss medium to balance the gain. The realization of gain/loss segments in our PT-symmetric all-colloidal arrangement is independent of selected pumping, reducing the complexity of the system and making compact device applications feasible, where control over the pumping is not possible. We observed a reduction in the number of modes, resulting in a reduced threshold and enhanced output power of the PT-symmetric laser. The PT-symmetric CQW-WGM microcavity architecture offers new opportunities towards simple implementation of high-performance optical resonators for colloidal lasers.

Ultralow-Threshold and High-Quality Whispering-Gallery-Mode Lasing from Colloidal Core/Hybrid-Shell Quantum Wells

The realization of efficient on-chip microlasers with scalable fabrication, ultralow threshold, and stable single-frequency operation is always desired for a wide range of miniaturized photonic systems. Herein, an effective way to fabricate nanostructures- whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) lasers by drop-casting CdSe/CdS@Cd_{1- x} Zn_x S core/buffer-shell@graded-shell nanoplatelets (NPLs) dispersion onto silica microspheres is presented. Benefiting from the excellent gain properties from the interface engineered core/hybrid shell NPLs and high-quality factor WGM resonator from excellent optical field confinement, the proposed room-temperature NPLs-WGM microlasers show a record-low lasing threshold of 3.26 µJ cm^-2 under nanosecond laser pumping among all colloidal NPLs-based lasing demonstrations. The presence of sharp discrete transverse electric- and magnetic-mode spikes, the inversely proportional dependence of the free spectra range on microsphere sizes and the polarization anisotropy of laser output represent the first direct experimental evidence for NPLs-WGM lasing nature, which is verified theoretically by the computed electric-field distribution inside the microcavity. Remarkably, a stable single-mode lasing output with an ultralow lasing threshold of 3.84 µJ cm^-2 is achieved by the Vernier effect through evanescent field coupling. The results highlight the significance of interface engineering on the optimization of gain properties of heterostructured nanomaterials and shed light on developing future miniaturized tunable coherent light sources.

Deep-Red-Emitting Colloidal Quantum Well Light-Emitting Diodes Enabled through a Complex Design of Core/Crown/Double Shell Heterostructure

Extending the emission peak wavelength of quasi-2D colloidal quantum wells has been an important quest to fully exploit the potential of these materials, which has not been possible due to the complications arising from the partial dissolution and recrystallization during growth to date. Here, the synthetic pathway of (CdSe/CdS)@(1-4 CdS/CdZnS) (core/crown)@(colloidal atomic layer deposition shell/hot injection shell) hetero-nanoplatelets (NPLs) using multiple techniques, which together enable highly efficient emission beyond 700 nm in the deep-red region, is proposed and demonstrated. Given the challenges of using conventional hot injection procedure, a method that allows to obtain sufficiently thick and passivated NPLs as the seeds is developed. Consequently, through the final hot injection shell coating, thick NPLs with superior optical properties including a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 88% are achieved. These NPLs emitting at 701 nm exhibit a full-width-at-half-maximum of 26 nm, enabled by the successfully maintained quasi-2D shape and minimum defects of the resulting heterostructure. The deep-red light-emitting diode (LED) device fabricated with these NPLs has shown to yield a high external quantum efficiency of 6.8% at 701 nm, which is on par with other types of LEDs in this spectral range.