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Reversible 3D laser printing of perovskite quantum dots inside a transparent medium

Abstract

The three-dimensional (3D) patterning of semiconductors is potentially important for exploring new functionalities and applications in optoelectronics1,2. Here, we show that it is possible to write on demand 3D patterns of perovskite quantum dots (QDs) inside a transparent glass material using a femtosecond laser. By utilizing the inherent ionic nature and low formation energy of perovskite, highly luminescent CsPbBr3 QDs can be reversibly fabricated in situ and decomposed through femtosecond laser irradiation and thermal annealing. This pattern of writing and erasing can be repeated for many cycles, and the luminescent QDs are well protected by the inorganic glass matrix, resulting in stable perovskite QDs with potential applications such as high-capacity optical data storage, information encryption and 3D artwork.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the femtosecond laser writing system for sample fabrication.
Fig. 2: In situ formation of CsPbBr3 QDs.
Fig. 3: Reversible PL property of CsPbBr3 QDs.
Fig. 4: Mechanisms of the reversible PL property of CsPbBr3 QDs.
Fig. 5: Demonstration of reversible CsPbBr3 QD 2D patterning and 3D structures.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (YS2018YFB110012, 2018YFA0306600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 51772101, 51872095, 51722202), Guangdong Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (grant no. S2014A030306045), Science and Technology Project of Guangdong Province (2017A010103037), Anhui Initiative in Quantum Information Technologies (grant no. AHY050000), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program (2017BT01X137), and Program for Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education of China (grant no. IRT_17R38). We thank H. Yu and W. Liu for help with the micro-PL measurements. We also thank J. Song for fruitful discussions and Z. Wang for help with the laser experiments.

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G.D. conceived, designed and supervised the overall project. X.H. conducted the experiments and wrote the manuscript. D.Y. and X.X. performed TEM characterizations. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Guoping Dong.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Additional microscopy and spectroscopy of the QDs.

Supplementary Video 1

Video of QDs being erased.

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Huang, X., Guo, Q., Yang, D. et al. Reversible 3D laser printing of perovskite quantum dots inside a transparent medium. Nat. Photonics 14, 82–88 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0538-8

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