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A generic electroluminescent device for emission from infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths

Nature Electronics volume 3, pages 612–621 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

The range of luminescent materials that can be used in electroluminescent devices is limited due to material processing challenges and band alignment issues. This impedes the development of electroluminescent devices at extreme wavelengths and hinders the use of electroluminescence spectroscopy as an analytical technique. Here, we show that a two-terminal device that uses an array of carbon nanotubes as the source contact can excite electroluminescence from various materials independent of their chemical composition. Transient band bending, created by applying an a.c. gate voltage, is used to achieve charge injection across different band alignments. As a result, the device can produce electroluminescence from long-wave infrared (0.13 eV) to ultraviolet (3.3 eV) wavelengths depending on the emitting material drop-casted on top of the nanotube array, and with onset voltages approaching the optical energy gap of the emitting material. We show that our device can be used to probe a chemical reaction in a liquid droplet via electroluminescence spectroscopy and can be used as an electroluminescence sensor for detecting organic vapours.

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Fig. 1: Device structure and EL image.
Fig. 2: EL from long-wave infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths with different types of material.
Fig. 3: Device simulation.
Fig. 4: Device characterization.
Fig. 5: Device optimization.
Fig. 6: EL spectroscopy and sensing.

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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 supported by the Electronic Materials Program, funded by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division of the US Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05Ch11231. We thank M. Amani, H. Kim and S. Z. Uddin for help with the optical measurement instrument set-up. Work at the Molecular Foundry was supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the US Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. V.W. acknowledges support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (grant no. DGE-1752814).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yingbo Zhao, Vivian Wang, Der-Hsien Lien.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Yingbo Zhao, Vivian Wang, Der-Hsien Lien & Ali Javey

  2. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Yingbo Zhao, Vivian Wang, Der-Hsien Lien & Ali Javey

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  1. Yingbo Zhao
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  2. Vivian Wang
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Contributions

Y.Z. and A.J. conceived the idea for the project. Y.Z., D.-H.L. and V.W. carried out optical measurements. V.W. carried out the device simulation. Y.Z. and V.W. fabricated devices and wrote the manuscript. All authors commented on the results and manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ali Javey.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–20, Tables 1–5, note and refs. 30–34.

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Zhao, Y., Wang, V., Lien, DH. et al. A generic electroluminescent device for emission from infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths. Nat Electron 3, 612–621 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-0459-z

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