New Class of ‘Soft’ Semiconductors Could Transform HD Displays

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that a class of semiconductor called halide perovskites is capable of emitting multiple, bright colors from a single nanowire at resolutions as small as 500 nanometers.

The findings, published online this week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represent a clear challenge to quantum dot displays that rely upon traditional semiconductor nanocrystals to emit light. It could also influence the development of new applications in optoelectronics, photovoltaics, nanoscopic lasers, and ultrasensitive photodetectors, among others.

The researchers used electron beam lithography to fabricate halide perovskite nanowire heterojunctions, the junction of two different semiconductors. In device applications, heterojunctions determine energy level and bandgap characteristics, and are therefore considered a key building block of modern electronics and photovoltaics.

Read more at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Image Credit: Letian Dou/Berkeley Lab and Connor G. Bischak/UC Berkeley

-jk-