Silicon Quantum Dot-Polymer Fabry-Pérot Resonators with Narrowed and Tunable Emissions

Luminescent silicon nanoparticles have been widely recognized as an alternative for metal-based quantum dots (QDs) for optoelectronics partly because of the high abundance and biocompatibility of silicon. To date, the broad photoluminescence line width (often >100 nm) of silicon QDs has been a hurdle to achieving competitive spectral purity and incorporating them into light-emitting devices. Herein we report fabrication and testing of straightforward configuration of Fabry-Pérot resonators that incorporates a thin layer of SiQD-polymer hybrid/blend between two reflective silver mirrors; remarkably these devices exhibit up-to-14-fold narrowing of SiQD emission and achieve a spectral bandwidth as narrow as ca. 9 nm. Our polymer-based, SiQD-containing Fabry-Pérot resonators also provide convenient spectral tunability, can be prepared using a variety of polymer hosts and substrates, and enable rigid as well as flexible devices.

Use of terpene-based products, with and without anhydrous alcohol, as clearing agents in trichrome staining technique for intestinal protozoa

BDH xylene substitute, a terpene-based product, and its mixture with anhydrous alcohol were found to be excellent replacements for xylene and carbol-xylene, respectively, in the trichrome staining technique applied to sodium acetate-acetic acid-Formalin-fixed fecal smears for detection of intestinal protozoa.