High External Quantum Efficiency Light-Emitting Diodes Enabled by Advanced Heterostructures of Type-II Nanoplatelets
Emek G. Durmusoglu, Sujuan Hu, Pedro Ludwig Hernández‐Martínez, Merve İzmir, Farzan Shabani, Min Guo, Huayu Gao, Furkan Işık, Savas Delikanli, Vijay Kumar Sharma, Baiquan Liu, Hilmi Volkan Demir
Abstract
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Colloidal quantum wells (CQWs), also known as nanoplatelets (NPLs), are exciting material systems for numerous photonic applications, including lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Although many successful type-I NPL-LEDs with high device performance have been demonstrated, type-II NPLs are not fully exploited for LED applications, even with alloyed type-II NPLs with enhanced optical properties. Here, we present the development of CdSe/CdTe/CdSe core/crown/crown (multi-crowned) type-II NPLs and systematic investigation of their optical properties, including their comparison with the traditional core/crown counterparts. Unlike traditional type-II NPLs such as CdSe/CdTe, CdTe/CdSe, and CdSe/CdSe x Te 1– x core/crown heterostructures, here the proposed advanced heterostructure reaps the benefits of having two type-II transition channels, resulting in a high quantum yield (QY) of 83% and a long fluorescence lifetime of 73.3 ns. These type-II transitions were confirmed experimentally by optical measurements and theoretically using electron and hole wave function modeling. Computational study shows that the multi-crowned NPLs provide a better-distributed hole wave function along the CdTe crown, while the electron wave function is delocalized in the CdSe core and CdSe crown layers. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, NPL-LEDs based on these multi-crowned NPLs were designed and fabricated with a record high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 7.83% among type-II NPL-LEDs. These findings are expected to induce advanced designs of NPL heterostructures to reach a fascinating level of performance, especially in LEDs and lasers.