Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) is a promising absorber material for thin film photovoltaics because of its attractive material, optical and electrical properties. In recent years, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of Sb2Se3 thin film solar cells has gradually enhanced to 5.6%. In this article, we systematically studied the basic physical properties of Sb2Se3 such as dielectric constant, anisotropic mobility, carrier lifetime, diffusion length, defect depth, defect density and optical band tail states. We believe such a comprehensive characterization of the basic physical properties of Sb2Se3 lays a solid foundation for further optimization of solar device performance.
The current status of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor technology was reviewed. Owing to their salient advantages, including immunity to electromagnetic interference, lightweight, compact size, high sensitivity, large operation bandwidth, and ideal multiplexing capability, FBG sensors have attracted considerable interest in the past three decades. Among these sensing physical quantities, temperature and strain are the most widely investigated ones. In this paper, the sensing principle of FBG sensors was briefly introduced first. Then, we reviewed the status of research and applications of FBG sensors. As very important for industrial applications, multiplexing and networking of FBG sensors had been introduced briefly. Moreover, as a key technology, the wavelength interrogation methods were also reviewed carefully. Finally, we analyzed the problems encountered in engineering applications and gave a general review on the development of interrogation methods of FBG sensor.
Lead halide perovskites, with high photoluminescence efficiency and narrow-band emission, are promising materials for display and lighting. However, the lead toxicity and environmental sensitivity hinder their potential applications. Herein, a new antimony-doped lead-free inorganic perovskites variant Cs2SnCl6:xSb is designed and synthesized. The perovskite variant Cs2SnCl6:xSb exhibits a broadband orange-red emission, with a photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 37%. The photoluminescence of Cs2SnCl6:xSb is caused by the ionoluminescence of Sb3+ within Cs2SnCl6 matrix, which is verified by temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL) and PL decay measurements. In addition, the all inorganic structure renders Cs2SnCl6:xSb with excellent thermal and water stability. Finally, a white light-emitting diode (white-LED) is fabricated by assembling Cs2SnCl6:0.59%Sb, Cs2SnCl6:2.75%Bi and Ba2Sr2SiO4:Eu2+ onto the commercial UV LED chips, and the color rendering index (CRI) reaches 81.
With strong electron–phonon coupling, the self-trapped excitons are usually formed in materials, which leads to the local lattice distortion and localized excitons. The self-trapping strongly depends on the dimensionality of the materials. In the three-dimensional case, there is a potential barrier for self-trapping, whereas no such barrier is present for quasi-one-dimensional systems. Two-dimensional (2D) systems are marginal cases with a much lower potential barrier or nonexistent potential barrier for the self-trapping, leading to the easier formation of self-trapped states. Self-trapped excitons emission exhibits a broadband emission with a large Stokes shift below the bandgap. 2D perovskites are a class of layered structure material with unique optical properties and would find potential promising optoelectronic. In particular, self-trapped excitons are present in 2D perovskites and can significantly influence the optical and electrical properties of 2D perovskites due to the soft characteristic and strong electron–phonon interaction. Here, we summarized the luminescence characteristics, origins, and characterizations of self-trapped excitons in 2D perovskites and finally gave an introduction to their applications in optoelectronics.
Metasurfaces are composed of periodic subwavelength nanostructures and exhibit optical properties that are not found in nature. They have been widely investigated for optical applications such as holograms, wavefront shaping, and structural color printing, however, electron-beam lithography is not suitable to produce large-area metasurfaces because of the high fabrication cost and low productivity. Although alternative optical technologies, such as holographic lithography and plasmonic lithography, can overcome these drawbacks, such methods are still constrained by the optical diffraction limit. To break through this fundamental problem, mechanical nanopatterning processes have been actively studied in many fields, with nanoimprint lithography (NIL) coming to the forefront. Since NIL replicates the nanopattern of the mold regardless of the diffraction limit, NIL can achieve sufficiently high productivity and patterning resolution, giving rise to an explosive development in the fabrication of metasurfaces. In this review, we focus on various NIL technologies for the manufacturing of metasurfaces. First, we briefly describe conventional NIL and then present various NIL methods for the scalable fabrication of metasurfaces. We also discuss recent applications of NIL in the realization of metasurfaces. Finally, we conclude with an outlook on each method and suggest perspectives for future research on the high-throughput fabrication of active metasurfaces.
The status and prospects for high-power, phosphor-based white light-emitting diode (LED) packaging have been presented. A system view for packaging design is proposed to address packaging issues. Four aspects of packaging are reviewed: optical control, thermal management, reliability and cost. Phosphor materials play the most important role in light extraction and color control. The conformal coating method improves the spatial color distribution (SCD) of LEDs. High refractive index (RI) encapsulants with high transmittance and modified surface morphology can enhance light extraction. Multi-phosphor-based packaging can realize the control of correlated color temperature (CCT) with high color rendering index (CRI). Effective thermal management can dissipate heat rapidly and reduce thermal stress caused by the mismatch of the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Chip-on-board (CoB) technology with a multi-layer ceramic substrate is the most promising method for high-power LED packaging. Low junction temperature will improve the reliability and provide longer life. Advanced processes, precise fabrication and careful operation are essential for high reliability LEDs. Cost is one of the biggest obstacles for the penetration of white LEDs into the market for general illumination products. Mass production in terms of CoB, system in packaging (SiP), 3D packaging and wafer level packaging (WLP) can reduce the cost significantly, especially when chip cost is lowered by using a large wafer size.
Halide perovskites have attracted tremendous attention as semiconducting materials for various optoelectronic applications. The functional metal-halide octahedral units and their spatial arrangements play a key role in the optoelectronic properties of these materials. At present, most of the efforts for material exploration focus on substituting the constituent elements of functional octahedral units, whereas designing the spatial arrangement of the functional units has received relatively little consideration. In this work, via a global structure search based on density functional theory (DFT), we discovered a metastable three-dimensional honeycomb-like perovskite structure with the functional octahedral units arranged through mixed edge- and corner-sharing. We experimentally confirmed that the honeycomb-like perovskite structure can be stabilized by divalent molecular cations with suitable size and shape, such as 2,2′-bisimidazole (BIM). DFT calculations and experimental characterizations revealed that the honeycomb-like perovskite with the formula of BIMPb2I6, synthesized through a solution process, exhibits high electronic dimensionality, a direct allowed bandgap of 2.1 eV, small effective masses for both electrons and holes, and high optical absorption coefficients, which indicates a significant potential for optoelectronic applications. The employed combination of DFT and experimental study provides an exemplary approach to explore prospective optoelectronic semiconductors via spatially arranging functional units.
Silicon photonic platforms offer relevance to large markets in many applications, such as optical phased arrays, photonic neural networks, programmable photonic integrated circuits, and quantum computation devices. As one of the basic tuning devices, the thermo-optic phase shifter (TOPS) plays an important role in all these applications. A TOPS with the merits of easy fabrication, low power consumption, small thermal time constant, low insertion loss, small footprint, and low crosstalk, is needed to improve the performance and lower the cost of the above applications. To meet these demands, various TOPS have been proposed and experimentally demonstrated on different foundry platforms In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art of TOPS, including metal heater, doped silicon, silicide, with silicon substrate undercut for heat insulation, folded waveguide structure, and multi-pass waveguide structure. We further compare these TOPSs and propose the directions of the future developments on TOPS.
The field of topological photonic crystals has attracted growing interest since the inception of optical analog of quantum Hall effect proposed in 2008. Photonic band structures embraced topological phases of matter, have spawned a novel platform for studying topological phase transitions and designing topological optical devices. Here, we present a brief review of topological photonic crystals based on different material platforms, including all-dielectric systems, metallic materials, optical resonators, coupled waveguide systems, and other platforms. Furthermore, this review summarizes recent progress on topological photonic crystals, such as higher-order topological photonic crystals, non-Hermitian photonic crystals, and nonlinear photonic crystals. These studies indicate that topological photonic crystals as versatile platforms have enormous potential applications in maneuvering the flow of light.
Optical vortices carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have attracted increasing interest in recent years. Optical vortices have seen a variety of emerging applications in optical manipulation, optical trapping, optical tweezers, optical vortex knots, imaging, microscopy, sensing, metrology, quantum information processing, and optical communications. In various optical vortices enabled applications, the generation of multiple optical vortices is of great importance. In this review article, we focus on the methods of multiple optical vortices generation and its applications. We review the methods for generating multiple optical vortices in three cases, i.e., 1-to-N collinear OAM modes, 1-to-N OAM mode array and N-to-N collinear OAM modes. Diverse applications of multiple OAM modes in optical communications and non-communication areas are presented. Future trends, perspectives and opportunities are also discussed.
Additive manufacturing (AM), which is also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, uses computer-aided design to build objects layer by layer. Here, we focus on the recent progress in the development of techniques for 3D printing of glass, an important optoelectronic material, including fused deposition modeling, selective laser sintering/melting, stereolithography (SLA) and direct ink writing. We compare these 3D printing methods and analyze their benefits and problems for the manufacturing of functional glass objects. In addition, we discuss the technological principles of 3D glass printing and applications of 3D printed glass objects. This review is finalized by a summary of the current achievements and perspectives for the future development of the 3D glass printing technique.
Copper tin sulfide (Cu2SnS3) was a potential earth abundant absorber material for photovoltaic device application. In this contribution, triclinic Cu2SnS3 film with phase pure composition and large grain size was fabricated from a hydrazine solution process using Cu, Sn and S as the precursors. Absorption measurement revealed this Cu2SnS3 film had a direct optical band gap of 0.88 eV, and Hall effect measurement indicated the film was p-type with hole mobility of 0.86 cm2/Vs. Finally Mo/Cu2SnS3/CdS/ZnO/AZO/Au was produced and the best device efficiency achieved was 0.78%. Also, this device showed improved device performance during ambient storage. This study laid some foundation for the further improvement of Cu2SnS3 solar cell.
A photonic crystal fiber (PCF) for sensing of sulfuric acid is designed and analyzed using Comsol Multiphysics. To analyze the sensor performance, 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% H2SO4 solution is placed into the fiber separately and then relative sensitivity, confinement loss, birefringence, effective area etc. are investigated for each solution over wavelength ranging from 0.8 to 1.8 mm. The sensor structure affords moderately high relative sensitivity and around 63.4% sensitivity is achieved for the highest concentration of H2SO4 at the wavelength 1.5 mm in x polarization direction. This PCF model also shows zero confinement loss for all solutions of H2SO4 over wavelength ranging from 1 to 1.35 mm and later on approximately 1.422 × 10−17 dB/km confinement loss is found for the highest concentration of H2SO4 at 1.5 mm wavelength. Besides, higher birefringence is attained when the concentration of sulfuric acid is lower and it is achieved 7.5 × 10−4 at 1.5 mm wavelength. Moreover, higher sensing area is achieved at high concentration of sulfuric acid.
All-optical devices, which are utilized to process optical signals without electro-optical conversion, play an essential role in the next generation ultrafast, ultralow power-consumption optical information processing systems. To satisfy the performance requirement, nonlinear optical materials that are associated with fast response, high nonlinearity, broad wavelength operation, low optical loss, low fabrication cost, and integration compatibility with optical components are required. Graphene is a promising candidate, particularly considering its electrically or optically tunable optical properties, ultrafast large nonlinearity, and high integration compatibility with various nanostructures. Thus far, three all-optical modulation systems utilize graphene, namely free-space modulators, fiber-based modulators, and on-chip modulators. This paper aims to provide a broad view of state-of-the-art researches on the graphene-based all-optical modulation systems. The performances of different devices are reviewed and compared to present a comprehensive analysis and perspective of graphene-based all-optical modulation devices.
This review discusses various parameters that influence and control the organo-metal halide perovskite crystallization process. The effect of the perovskite morphology on the photovoltaic performance is a critical factor. Moreover, it has a dramatic effect on the stability of the perovskite, which has significant importance for later use of the organo-metal perovskite in assorted applications. In this review, we brought together several research investigations that describe the main parameters that significantly influence perovskite crystallization, for example, the annealing process, the precursor solvent, anti-solvent treatment, and additives to the iteite solutions.
This paper reviews the work done by researchers at INRS and UBC in the field of integrated microwave photonics (IMWPs) using silicon based waveguide Bragg gratings (WBGs). The grating design methodology is discussed in detail, including practical device fabrication considerations. On-chip implementations of various fundamental photonic signal processing units, including Fourier transformers, Hilbert transformers, ultrafast pulse shapers etc., are reviewed. Recent progress on WBGs-based IMWP subsystems, such as true time delay elements, phase shifters, real time frequency identification systems, is also discussed.
This review article highlights the exploration of inorganic nanoscintillators for various scientific and technological applications in the fields of radiation detection, bioimaging, and medical theranostics. Various aspects of nanoscintillators pertaining to their fundamental principles, mechanism, structure, applications are briefly discussed. The mechanisms of inorganic nanoscintillators are explained based on the fundamental principles, instrumentation involved, and associated physical and chemical phenomena, etc. Subsequently, the promise of nanoscintillators over the existing single-crystal scintillators and other types of scintillators is presented, enabling their development for multifunctional applications. The processes governing the scintillation mechanisms in nanodomains, such as surface, structure, quantum, and dielectric confinement, are explained to reveal the underlying nanoscale scintillation phenomena. Additionally, suitable examples are provided to explain these processes based on the published data. Furthermore, we attempt to explain the different types of inorganic nanoscintillators in terms of the powder nanoparticles, thin films, nanoceramics, and glasses to ensure that the effect of nanoscience in different nanoscintillator domains can be appreciated. The limitations of nanoscintillators are also highlighted in this review article. The advantages of nanostructured scintillators, including their property-driven applications, are also explained. This review article presents the considerable application potential of nanostructured scintillators with respect to important aspects as well as their physical and application significance in a concise manner.
High birefringence with low confinement loss photonic crystal fiber (PCF) has significant advantages in the field of sensing, dispersion compensation devices, nonlinear applications, and polarization filter. In this report, two different models of PCFs are presented and compared. Both the models contain five air holes rings with combination of circular and elliptical air holes arrangement. Moreover, the elliptical shaped air holes polarization and the third ring air holes rotational angle are varied. To examine different guiding characteristics, finite element method (FEM) with perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition is applied from 1.2 to 1.8 µm wavelength range. High birefringence, low confinement loss, high nonlinearity, and moderate dispersion values are successfully achieved in both the PCFs models. Numeric analysis shows that model-1 gives higher birefringence (2.75 × 10−2) and negative dispersion (−540.67 ps/(nm·km)) at 1.55 µm wavelength. However, model-2 gives more small confinement loss than model-1 at the same wavelength. In addition, the proposed design demonstrates the variation of rotation angle has great impact to enhance guiding properties especially the birefringence.
Optical pulse processor meets the urgent demand for high-speed, ultra wideband devices, which can avoid electrical confinements in various fields, e.g., all-optical communication, optical computing technology, coherent control and microwave fields. To date, great efforts have been made particularly in on-chip programmable pulse processing. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a programmable pulse processor employing 16-cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometer coupled microring resonator (MZI-MRR) structure based on silicon-on-insulator wafer. With micro-heaters loaded to the device, both amplitude and frequency tunings can be realized in each MZI-MRR unit. Thanks to its reconfigurability and integration ability, the pulse processor has exhibited versatile functions. First, it can serve as a fractional differentiator whose tuning range is 0.51−2.23 with deviation no more than 7%. Second, the device can be tuned into a programmable optical filter whose bandwidth varies from 0.15 to 0.97 nm. The optical filter is also shape tunable. Especially, 15-channel wavelength selective switches are generated.
Chern number is one of the most important criteria by which the existence of a topological photonic state among various photonic crystals can be judged; however, few reports have presented a universal numerical calculation method to directly calculate the Chern numbers of different topological photonic crystals and have denoted the influence of different structural parameters. Herein, we demonstrate a direct and universal method based on the finite element method to calculate the Chern number of the typical topological photonic crystals by dividing the Brillouin zone into small zones, establishing new properties to obtain the discrete Chern number, and simultaneously drawing the Berry curvature of the first Brillouin zone. We also explore the manner in which the topological properties are influenced by the different structure types, air duty ratios, and rotating operations of the unit cells; meanwhile, we obtain large Chern numbers from −2 to 4. Furthermore, we can tune the topological phase change via different rotation operations of triangular dielectric pillars. This study provides a highly efficient and simple method for calculating the Chern numbers and plays a major role in the prediction of novel topological photonic states.
This paper reports on the latest advances in line-field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC-OCT), a recently invented imaging technology that now allows the generation of either horizontal (x× y) section images at an adjustable depth or vertical (x× z) section images at an adjustable lateral position, as well as three-dimensional images. For both two-dimensional imaging modes, images are acquired in real-time, with real-time control of the depth and lateral positions. Three-dimensional (x× y× z) images are acquired from a stack of horizontal section images. The device is in the form of a portable probe. The handle of the probe has a button and a scroll wheel allowing the user to control the imaging modes. Using a supercontinuum laser as a broadband light source and a high numerical microscope objective, an isotropic spatial resolution of ~1 mm is achieved. The field of view of the three-dimensional images is 1.2 mm × 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm (x× y× z). Images of skin tissues are presented to demonstrate the potential of the technology in dermatology.
Ever since vortex beams were proposed, they are known for owning phase singularity and carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). In the past decades, coherent optics developed rapidly. Vortex beams have been extended from fully coherent light to partially coherent light, from scalar light to vector light, from integral topological charge (TC) to fractional TC. Partially coherent vortex beams have attracted tremendous interest due to their hidden correlation singularity and unique propagation properties (e.g., beam shaping, beam rotation and self-reconstruction). Based on the sufficient condition for devising a genuine correlation function of partially coherent beam, partially coherent vortex beams with nonconventional correlation functions (i.e., non-Gaussian correlated Schell-model functions) were introduced recently. This timely review summarizes basic concepts, theoretical models, generation and propagation of partially coherent vortex beams.
Perovskite-based optoelectronic devices, especially perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) and perovskite solar cells, have recently attracted considerable attention. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) chart inspires us to develop a counterpart for PeLEDs. In this study, we collect the record performance of PeLEDs including several new entries to address their latest external quantum efficiency (EQE), highest luminance, and stability status. We hope that these performance tables and future updated versions will show the frontiers of PeLEDs, assist researchers in capturing the overview of this field, identify the remaining challenges, and predict the promising research directions.
In this study, a new broadband and conformal metamaterial absorber using two flexible substrates was proposed. Simulation results showed that the proposed absorber exhibited an absorption band from 6.08 to 13.04 GHz and a high absorption of 90%, because it was planar. The absorber was broadband as its relative absorption bandwidth was 72.8%. Moreover, the proposed absorber was insensitive to the polarization of the TE and TM waves. The absorber was ultra-thin; its total thickness was only 0.07λ at the lowest operating frequency. Furthermore, different regions of absorption can be adjusted by lumping and loading two resistors onto the polyimide film, respectively. Moreover, compared with the conventional microwave absorber, the absorption bandwidth of the proposed absorber can be broadened and enhanced when it was bent and conformed to the surface of objects. Experimental and simulation results were in agreement. The proposed absorber is a promising absorbing element in scientific and technical applications because of its broadband absorption, polarization insensitivity, and flexible substrates.
This work explores the use of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) modified carbon nanotubes (CNTs@P3HT) for the cathodes of hole transporter free, mesoscopic perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) solar cells (PSCs), simultaneously achieving high-performance, high stability and low-cost PSCs. Here the thin P3HT modifier acts as an electron blocker to inhibit electron transfer into CNTs and a hydrophobic polymer binder to tightly cross-link the CNTs together to compact the carbon electrode film and greatly stabilize the solar cell. On the other hand, the presence of CNTs greatly improve the conductivity of P3HT. By optimizing the concentration of the P3HT modifier (2 mg/mL), we have improved the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of CNTs@P3HT based PSCs up to 13.43% with an average efficiency of 12.54%, which is much higher than the pure CNTs based PSCs (best PCE 10.59%) and the sandwich-type P3HT/CNTs based PSCs (best PCE 9.50%). In addition, the hysteresis of the CNTs@P3HT based PSCs is remarkably reduced due to the intimate interface between the perovskite and CNTs@P3HT electrodes. Degradation of the CNTs@ P3HT based PSCs is also strongly retarded as compared to cells employing the pure CNTs electrode when exposed to the ambient condition of 20%-40% humidity.
Tandem structured dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) can take full advantage of sunlight, effectively broadening the absorption spectrum of the cell, resulting in a higher open circuit voltage or short circuit current than that of the conventional DSSC with single light absorber. The theoretical maximum efficiency is therefore suggested to be over the Schottky-Queisser limit of 33%. Accordingly, tandem design of DSSC is thought to be a promising way to break the performance bottleneck of DSSC. Besides, the tandem designs also broaden the application diversity of DSSC technology, which will accelerate its scale-up industrial application. In this paper, we have reviewed the recent progress on photo-electrochemical applications associated with kinds of tandem designs of DSSCs, in general, which are divided into three kinds: “n-type DSSC+n-type DSSC,” “n-type DSSC+p-type DSSC” and “n-type DSSC+other solar conversion devices.” The working principles, advantages and challenges of these tandem structured DSSCs have been discussed. Some possible solutions for further studies have been also pointed out together.
Applications of optical switches, such as signal routing and data-intensive computing, are critical in optical interconnects and optical computing. Integrated optical switches enabled by two-dimensional (2D) materials and beyond, such as graphene and black phosphorus, have demonstrated many advantages in terms of speed and energy consumption compared to their conventional silicon-based counterparts. Here we review the state-of-the-art of optical switches enabled by 2D materials and beyond and organize them into several tables. The performance tables and future projections show the frontiers of optical switches fabricated from 2D materials and beyond, providing researchers with an overview of this field and enabling them to identify existing challenges and predict promising research directions.
In this paper, we proposed a 2-channel demultiplexer based on photonic crystal ring resonator (PCRR). For performing wavelength selection, we used two ring resonators, two different wavelengths were obtained by using two resonant rings with different values for the radius of dielectric rods. All the simulations and calculations have been done using Rsoft Photonic CAD software, which employs finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The output channels were respectively at 1590.8 and 1593.8 nm, correspondingly had the quality factors of 7954 and 3984, the crosstalk values of -22 and -11 dB separately. The total footprint of our proposed structure is 681.36 μm2. Results suggest that 2-channels in the proposed structure are characterized with high transmission efficiency and low band width, resulting in a very sharp output spectrum and high quality factor values.