Abstract
Infrared-to-visible upconversion devices made by integrating an infrared quantum dot photodetector with an organic light-emitting diode potentially offer a route to low-cost, pixel-free infrared imaging. However, making such devices sufficiently efficient for practical use is a challenge. Here, we report a high-gain vertical phototransistor with a perforated metallic source electrode having an EQE up to 1 × 105% and a detectivity of 1.2 × 1013 Jones. By incorporating a phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode in this phototransistor, an infrared-to-visible upconversion LEPT with a photon-to-photon conversion efficiency of over 1,000% is demonstrated.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chen, J. et al. Hybrid organic/inorganic optical up-converter for pixel-less near-infrared imaging. Adv. Mater. 24, 3138–3142 (2012).
Allard, L., Liu, H., Buchanan, M. & Wasilewski, Z. Pixelless infrared imaging utilizing a p-type quantum well infrared photodetector integrated with a light emitting diode. Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, 2784–2786 (1997).
Kim, D. Y., Song, D. W., Chopra, N., De Somer, P. & So, F. Organic infrared upconversion device. Adv. Mater. 22, 2260 (2010).
Kim, D. Y. et al. PbSe nanocrystal-based infrared-to-visible up-conversion device. Nano. Lett. 11, 2109–2113 (2011).
Kim, D. Y., Lai, T.-H., Lee, J. W., Manders, J. R. & So, F. Multi-spectral imaging with infrared sensitive organic light emitting diode. Sci. Rep. 4, 5946 (2014).
Campbell, I. H. & Crone, B. K. A near infrared organic photodiode with gain at low bias voltage. Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 263302 (2009).
Koppens, F. et al. Photodetectors based on graphene, other two-dimensional materials and hybrid systems. Nature Nanotech. 9, 780–793 (2014).
Sun, Z. et al. Infrared photodetectors based on CVD-grown graphene and PbS quantum dots with ultrahigh responsivity. Adv. Mater. 24, 5878–5883 (2012).
Konstantatos, G. et al. Ultrasensitive solution-cast quantum dot photodetectors. Nature 442, 180–183 (2006).
Konstantatos, G. et al. Hybrid graphene–quantum dot phototransistors with ultrahigh gain. Nature Nanotech. 7, 363–368 (2012).
Peumans, P. & Forrest, S. R. Very-high-efficiency double-heterostructure copper phthalocyanine/C60 photovoltaic cells. Appl. Phys. Lett. 79, 126–128 (2001).
Sze, S. M. & Ng, K. K. Physics of Semiconductor Devices (Wiley, 2006).
Tang, J. A. & Sargent, E. H. Infrared colloidal quantum dots for photovoltaics: fundamentals and recent progress. Adv. Mater. 23, 12–29 (2011).
Sargent, E. H. Infrared quantum dots. Adv. Mater. 17, 515–522 (2005).
He, G. et al. High-efficiency and low-voltage p–i–n electrophosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes with double-emission layers. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 3911–3913 (2004).
Lee, J. Y. & Kwon, J. H. The effect of C60 doping on the device performance of organic light-emitting diodes. Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 063514 (2005).
Krätschmer, W., Lamb, L. D., Fostiropoulos, K. & Huffman, D. R. C60: a new form of carbon. Nature 347, 354–358 (1990).
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge financial support from Nanoholdings LLC. The experimental part of the work was carried out at the University of Florida.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
F.S. conceived the device concept. H.Y. fabricated the devices. H.Y., D.Y.K. and F.S. designed the experiments and analysed the data. J.H.L., S.J.B. and R.S. contributed to the development of the photoactive gate part in the vertical transistors. J.W.L. contributed to the detectivity measurements.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary information
Supplementary information (PDF 986 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yu, H., Kim, D., Lee, J. et al. High-gain infrared-to-visible upconversion light-emitting phototransistors. Nature Photon 10, 129–134 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.270
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.270
This article is cited by
-
Dynamic upconversion multicolour editing enabled by molecule-assisted opto-electrochemical modulation
Nature Communications (2021)
-
Ultra High-efficiency Integrated Mid Infrared to Visible Up-conversion System
Scientific Reports (2020)
-
Edge-driven nanomembrane-based vertical organic transistors showing a multi-sensing capability
Nature Communications (2020)
-
Solution-processed upconversion photodetectors based on quantum dots
Nature Electronics (2020)
-
Memory phototransistors based on exponential-association photoelectric conversion law
Nature Communications (2019)