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Far-ultraviolet plane-emission handheld device based on hexagonal boron nitride

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 591–594 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Many researchers have been trying to produce highly efficient solid-state devices with longer operating lives for the far-ultraviolet wavelength region as an alternative to conventional far-ultraviolet lamps. However, owing to the low efficiency of far-ultraviolet operation, research continues into the development of far-ultraviolet devices with sufficiently high performance1,2. Here, the potential of hexagonal boron nitride as a far-ultraviolet fluorescent material is studied. Specifically, taking advantage of the highly luminous properties of hexagonal boron nitride3, a far-ultraviolet plane-emission compact device equipped with a field-emission array4 as an excitation source is fabricated, and its stable operation with an output power of 0.2 mW at 225 nm demonstrated. Because of its low current consumption in operation, the device can be driven by dry batteries. This convenient far-ultraviolet device is likely to prove extremely useful in photochemical and biotechnological applications such as photocatalysis, sterilization and modification of chemical substances.

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Figure 1: Device appearance and structure.
Figure 2: Dependence of output power on accelerating voltage.
Figure 3: Example of output spectra.
Figure 4: Output stability.
Figure 5: Photograph of a battery-driven FUV plane-emission device in operation.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A), 19205026, 2007, Priority Areas ‘Nano Materials Science for Atomic Scale Modification 474’ and the Grant-in-Aid for World Premiere Research Institute (WPI) Initiative (MANA@NIMS). All grants were promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Materials Science, Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan

    Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi

  2. Futaba Corporation, Yabutsuka 1080, Chosei-mura, Chosei-gun, Chiba, 299-4395, Japan

    Takahiro Niiyama, Kenta Miya & Masateru Taniguchi

Authors
  1. Kenji Watanabe
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  2. Takashi Taniguchi
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  3. Takahiro Niiyama
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  4. Kenta Miya
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  5. Masateru Taniguchi
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Contributions

K.W. and T.T. prepared the highly luminous hBN powders, and T.N., K.M. and M.T. fabricated the FED structured devices. All tests on device performance were carried out by the authors.

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Correspondence to Kenji Watanabe.

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Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T., Niiyama, T. et al. Far-ultraviolet plane-emission handheld device based on hexagonal boron nitride. Nature Photon 3, 591–594 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.167

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