Research on organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) has been revitalized, partly due to the debut of the OLED TV by SONY in 2008. While there is still plenty of room for improvement in efficiency, cost-effectiveness and longevity, it is timely to report on the advances of light emitting materials, the core of OLEDs, and their future perspectives.
10 October 2011
A new class of polymer materials has been developed that can convert light energy directly into mechanical work, and show a variety of three-dimensional movements simply from exposure to light. These polymer materials can be fabricated into any shape and size using photolithographic methods and it is expected they will be developed for various applications. In this paper recent progress of this interesting class of polymer material is reviewed.
10 October 2011
Applications of colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have recently begun to move from the laboratory into the commercial sector. This article provides a brief description of QDs and their associated optical properties, highlighting the concept that QD size is now a parameter used to tune photophysical properties.
23 August 2011
Exploration of the Stranski-Krastanow growth of strained semiconductor heterostructures marked the major breakthrough for easy fabrication of defect-free quantum dots (QDs). For the first time, single QDs are facilitating the development of electrically operated emitters of single polarized or entangled photons on demand: an essential component for quantum communication systems.
23 August 2011
An overview of III-Nitride based laser diodes (LDs) is presented focusing on the materials challenges in each phase of device development. We discuss early breakthroughs leading to the first commercial GaN LDs, covering crystal growth, p-type doping, and defect reduction.
23 August 2011
Strong intrinsic nonlinear optical (NLO) signals not only make nanostructures promising agents for bio-imaging, but also advance NLO microscopy for the study of interactions between nanomaterials and live cells. Single beam modalities such as multiphoton luminescence, second harmonic generation, and third harmonic generation provide a simple way to probe many types of nanostructures.
15 June 2011
Have you ever wondered what that glowing light is coming from someone's mouth when they chew a real Wint-O-Green® Lifesaver in a darkened room? In 1888, the source of this light was determined to be produced by the breaking of crystals and given the name triboluminescence (TL). Over a century later, the scientific world is aware that many materials emit triboluminescent light.
15 June 2011
Silsesquioxanes are inorganic-organic hybrid materials that combine the mechanical, thermal, and chemical stability of ceramics with the solution processing and flexibility of traditional soft materials. In this review we discuss how these attributes naturally lend themselves to a diverse range of nanoscale patterning applications.
23 February 2011
Are you on Facebook? Twitter, perhaps? Maybe LinkedIn? What about a social networking site dedicated to materials science? If you are not, you may be more alone than you think…
16 February 2010
The ability to control the creation of mechanical work remotely, with high speed and spatial precision, over long distances, offers many intriguing possibilities.
20 June 2008