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Filterless narrowband visible photodetectors

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 687–694 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Wavelength-selective light detection is crucial for many applications, including imaging and machine vision. Narrowband spectral responses are required for colour discrimination, and current systems use broadband photodiodes combined with optical filters. This approach increases the architectural complexity and limits the quality of colour sensing. Here we report a method for tuning the spectral response to give filterless, narrowband red, green and blue photodiodes. The devices have simple planar junction architectures with the photoactive layer being a solution-processed mixture of either an organohalide perovskite or lead halide semiconductor and an organic (macro)molecule. The organic (macro)molecules modify the optical and electrical properties of the photodiode and facilitate charge collection narrowing of the device's external quantum efficiency. These red, green and blue photodiodes all possess full-width at half-maxima of <100 nm and performance metrics suitable for many imaging applications.

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Figure 1: Working principles of CCN photodiodes.
Figure 2: Optical gap tunability and addition of an organic molecular component to organohalide perovskite semiconductors.
Figure 3: Working mechanism and performance of the red narrowband CCN photodiodes.
Figure 4: Device performance and bandwidth tunability of red narrowband photodiodes.
Figure 5: Device performance summary of red, green and blue narrowband CCN photodiodes.

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Acknowledgements

P.L.B. is a UQ Vice Chancellor's Research Focussed Fellow and P.M. is an ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award Fellow. Q.L. is supported by an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS). This work was performed in part at the Queensland node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), a company established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy to provide nano and micro fabrication facilities for Australia's researchers. This Program has also been supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics. Responsibility for the views, information or advice expressed herein is not accepted by the Australian Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Organic Photonics & Electronics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, and School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia

    Qianqian Lin, Ardalan Armin, Paul L. Burn & Paul Meredith

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  1. Qianqian Lin
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  2. Ardalan Armin
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Contributions

Q.L. characterized the perovskite films and fabricated the devices. Q.L. and A.A. tested the devices and all authors interpreted the data. P.L.B. and P.M. supervised the project. All authors contributed to preparation of the manuscript. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Paul L. Burn or Paul Meredith.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Lin, Q., Armin, A., Burn, P. et al. Filterless narrowband visible photodetectors. Nature Photon 9, 687–694 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.175

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