We report on the fundamental properties and device applications of semiconductor nanoparticles. ZnO nanowires and CdSe quantum dots were used, prepared, characterized, and assembled into novel light-emitting diodes and solar cells. ZnO nanowire films were grown electrochemically using aqueous soluble chloride-based electrolytes as precursors at temperatures below 90° C. Dopants were added to the electrolyte in the form of chloride compounds, which are AlCl3, CoCl2, CuCl2, and MnCl2. The optical, magnetic, and structural properties of undoped and transition-metal-ion doped ZnO nanowires were explored. Our results indicate that the as-grown nanowire structures have considerable internal strain, resulting in clearly visible lattice distortions in bright and dark-field transmission electron micrographs. Photo and electroluminescence studies indicate that the strain-induced defects strongly dominate any dopant-related effects. However, annealing at moderate temperature as well as laser annealing induces strain relaxation and leads to dopant activation. Hence, the optical and electrical properties of the nanowires significantly improve, allowing these nanowires to become feasible for use in the fabrication of solar cell and LED devices. In addition, the magnetic impurities incorporated into our ZnO nanowires show superparamagnetic behavior at room-temperature, while Al-doped and undoped ZnO nanowires show no magnetic behavior. The electroluminescence (EL) is achieved from a vertical hybrid p-n junction LED arrangement consisting of a hole-conducting polymer and n-type ZnO nanowires, our group was the first to report this vertical nanowire-based LED in Könenkamp et al., 2004 [12]. The observed EL spectra show an ultraviolet excitonic emission peak and a broad defect-related emission band in the visible range. After annealing at 380° C, the defect related EL peak exhibits a characteristic shift to higher wavelengths, where the magnitude of the shift is dependent on the dopant type. Aluminum incorporation exhibited the most improved exciton related-emission, leading to the emergence of a narrow excitonic luminescence peak around 390 nm, which is close to the bandgap of ZnO. The comparison of spectra obtained from temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements, before and after thermal annealing, also indicates that the optical activity of impurities changes noticeably upon annealing. The internal quantum efficiency for PL is measured to be as high as 16 percent for Al-doped samples annealed at 380° C. The PL measurements also show that the excitonic luminescence is preferentially guided, while the defect related emission is more isotropically emitted. The nanostructured heterojunction solar cell is designed such that thin CdSe quantum dot films are embedded between a ZnO nanowire film and a hole-conducting polymer layer. This arrangement allows for enhanced light absorption and an efficient collection of photogenerated carriers. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the pyridine solution and 1,2- ethanedithiol ligand exchange processes of the quantum dots, deposition processes of this quantum dot layer, the conformality of this layer on deeply nanostructured samples, and the effect of a surfactant-aided thermal annealing process. Annealing creates a structural conversion of the quantum dot layers into an extremely thin continuous poly-crystalline film, with typical grain diameters of 30-50 nm. This transition is accompanied by a loss of quantum confinement and a significant improvement of the charge transport in the CdSe layer. The combination of the solution and ligand exchange of CdSe quantum dots, as well as the deposition and optimized annealing processes of this quantum dot layer, resulted in solar cells with an open-circuit voltage up to 0.6 V, a short circuit current of ~15 mA/cm2, an external quantum efficiency of 70 percent, and an energy conversion efficiency of 3.4 percent. This 3.4 percent efficiency is presently one of the best efficiencies obtained for this type of device.

This work establishes a solid foundation for the use of indirect band gap semiconductors for light emitting application and presents the work on development of white light emitting diodes (LEDs) in silicon carbide (SiC). Novel laser doping has been utilized to fabricate white light emitting diodes in 6H-SiC (n-type N) and 4H-SiC (p-type Al) wafers. The emission of different colors to ultimately generate white light is tailored on the basis of donor acceptor pair (DAP) recombination mechanism for luminescence. A Q-switched Nd:YAG pulse laser (1064 nm wavelength) was used to carry out the doping experiments. The p and n regions of the white SiC LED were fabricated by laser doping an n-type 6H-SiC and p-type 4H-SiC wafer substrates with respective dopants. Cr, B and Al were used as p-type dopants (acceptors) while N and Se were used as n-type dopants (donors). Deep and shallow donor and acceptor impurity level states formed by these dopants tailor the color properties for pure white light emission. The electromagnetic field of lasers and non-equilibrium doping conditions enable laser doping of SiC with increased dopant diffusivity and enhanced solid solubility. A thermal model is utilized to determine the laser doping parameters for temperature distribution at various depths of the wafer and a diffusion model is presented including the effects of Fick's diffusion, laser electromagnetic field and thermal stresses due to localized laser heating on the mass flux of dopant atoms. The dopant diffusivity is calculated as a function of temperature at different depths of the wafer based on measured dopant concentration profile. The maximum diffusivities achieved in this study are 4.61x10-10 cm2/s at 2898 K and 6.92x10-12 cm2/s at 3046 K for Cr in 6H-SiC and 4H-SiC respectively. Secondary ion mass spectrometric (SIMS) analysis showed the concentration profile of Cr in SiC having a penetration depth ranging from 80 nm in p-type 4H-SiC to 1.5 [micro]m in n-type 6H-SiC substrates respectively. The SIMS data revealed enhanced solid solubility (2.29x1019 cm-3 in 6H-SiC and 1.42x1919 cm-3 in 4H-SiC) beyond the equilibrium limit (3x1017 cm-3 in 6H-SiC above 2500 [degrees]C) for Cr in SiC. It also revealed similar effects for Al and N. The roughness, surface chemistry and crystalline integrity of the doped sample were examined by optical interferometer, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) respectively. Inspite of the larger atomic size of Cr compared to Si and C, the non-equilibrium conditions during laser doping allow effective incorporation of dopant atoms into the SiC lattice without causing any damage to the surface or crystal lattice. Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) confirmed the deep level acceptor state of Cr with activation energies of Ev+0.80 eV in 4H-SiC and Ev+0.45 eV in 6H-SiC. The Hall Effect measurements showed the hole concentration to be 1.98x1019 cm-3 which is almost twice the average Cr concentration (1x1019 cm-3) obtained from the SIMS data. These data confirmed that almost all of the Cr atoms were completely activated to the double acceptor state by the laser doping process without requiring any subsequent annealing step. Electroluminescence studies showed blue (460-498 nm), blue-green (500-520 nm) green (521-575 nm), and orange (650-690 nm) wavelengths due to radiative recombination transitions between donor-acceptors pairs of N-Al, N-B, N-Cr and Cr-Al respectively, while a prominent violet (408 nm) wavelength was observed due to transitions from the nitrogen level to the valence band level. The red (698-738 nm) luminescence was mainly due to metastable mid-bandgap states, however under high injection current it was due to the quantum mechanical phenomenon pertaining to band broadening and overlapping. This RGB combination produced a broadband white light spectrum extending from 380 to 900 nm. The color space tri-stimulus values for 4H-SiC doped with Cr and N were X = 0.3322, Y = 0.3320 and Z = 0.3358 as per 1931 CIE (International Commission on Illumination) corresponding to a color rendering index of 96.56 and the color temperature of 5510 K. And for 6H-SiC n-type doped with Cr and Al, the color space tri-stimulus values are X = 0.3322, Y = 0.3320 and Z = 0.3358. The CCT was 5338 K, which is very close to the incandescent lamp (or black body) and lies between bright midday sun (5200 K) and average daylight (5500 K) while CRI was 98.32. Similar white LED's were also fabricated using Cr, Al, Se as one set of dopants and B, Al, N as another.

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Ein vielversprechendes Design für organische lichtemittierende Dioden (OLEDs) verwendet eine Wirt-Gast-Strategie durch Dispergieren einer kleinen Menge eines hocheffizienten Emitters (der Gast) in eine passende Transportmatrix (der Wirt). Die Aufgabe des Wirts ist den Exzitonentranport zum Emitter sicherzustellen und den Zerfall von Triplet-Exzitonen zu verhindern, und damit eine hohe Bauteilperformance zu erreichen. Die vorliegende Arbeit konzentriert sich auf die Beziehung zwischen Molekülstruktur und optoelektrischer Eigenschaften von Carbazol/Dibenzothiophen-Derivaten. Die Untersuchung umfasst sieben dieser Derivate für den Wirt, bei denen die Carbazoleinheit als Donator und die Dibenzothiopheneinheit als Akzeptor fungiert, wobei beide durch einen oder mehrere Phenylabstandshalter verbunden sind. Diese Wahl der Wirtsmaterialien erlaubt es den Einfluss der erweiterten Phenylabstandshalter und der unterschiedlichen molaren Verhältnisse von Akzeptor zu Donator zu untersuchen. Es ergab sich, dass eine kürzere Phenylabstandshalterlänge die Bauteilperformance durch eine größere Löcher- und Elektronendichte in der Emitterschicht verbessert; und ein 1:1 Carbazol-zu-Dibenzothiophen-Verhältnis der Bauteilperformance zuträglich ist, da es zu einem Ladungsträgergleichgewicht in der Emitterschicht führt. Diese Arbeit zeigt, unter Verwendung dieser Wirtsmaterialien, blaue FIrpic-basierte phosphoreszierende OLEDs (PhOLEDs) und grüne 4CzIPN-basierte thermisch aktivierte verzögerte Phosphoreszenz (TADF) OLEDs. Die blauen PhOLEDs und grünen TADF OLEDs mit mDCP zeigten Effizienzen von 43 cd/A (18.6%) beziehungsweise 66 cd/A (21%). / A particularly interesting organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) design adopts a host-guest strategy by dispersing a small amount of highly efficient emitter (the guest) into an appropriate transport matrix (the host). The host is utilized to transfer excitons to the emitter and to prevent triplet exciton quenching, thus high device performance can be achieved. The present thesis focuses on the relationship between the molecular structure and opto-electrical properties of carbazole/dibenzothiophene derivatives. The investigation encompasses seven of these derivatives for the host, in which the carbazole unit acts as a donor and the dibenzothiophene as an acceptor while they are linked through phenyl spacer(s). This choice of host materials enables to assess the impact of extended phenyl spacers and different acceptor to donor molar ratios. It was found that decreasing the phenyl spacer length enhances the device performance due to the larger both hole and electron densities in the emitting layer; and a 1:1 carbazole to dibenzothiophene ratio is favorable for device performance, since it balances the charge carriers in the emitting layer. Using these host materials, the work presented in this thesis demonstrates high-performance blue FIrpic-based phosphorescent OLEDs (PhOLEDs) and green 4CzIPN-based thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) OLEDs. The blue PhOLEDs and green TADF OLEDs with mDCP showed efficiencies of 43 cd/A (18.6%) and 66 cd/A (21%), respectively.

Carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) have drawn great attention in the last few years owing to their unique properties such as excellent water solubility, chemical stability, inertness, low toxicity, good bio-compatibility, and tunable photo physical properties. Recently, researchers have focused on hetero atom (N, S and B) doped CNPs due to their excellent properties. These properties make the CNPs and doped CNPs as potential candidates for a wide range of applications. For example, metal ion detection in aqueous solution, bio-imaging, bio-sensing, photovoltaic devices, cleavage of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and catalysis. Therefore, CNPs are alternative to inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles. However, CNPs with diameter less than 10 nm have been prepared using various approaches including top down and bottom methods. Cutting the bulk carbon from high dimensional to zero dimensional by using either physical or chemical process are classified as top down method. Bottom up method refers the conversion of organic precursor to nano-carbon by using thermal pyrolysis, microwave based hydrothermal method, cage opening of C60 molecules. In the present work, I have dealt with the facile synthesis of CNPs and different hetero atom doped carbon nanoparticles (N-CNPs, B-CNPs, and BN-CNPs) using the hydrothermal method. Based on their intriguing physical and chemical properties, these CNPs/doped-CNPs have been explored for various applications such as (i) metal-free catalysts, (ii) color tunability from red to blue and bio-imaging, (iii) ammonia sensing, (iv) white light generation, and (v) detection of picric acid (PA) in aqueous solution. Finally, I have presented 3D nanodendrites of N-CNPs and Pd NPs and their excellent catalytic mass activity for methanol electro-oxidation and ultra-fast reduction of 4-nitrophenol.

The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology is emerging to be the future technology of choice for thin, flexible and efficient display and lighting panels and is a potential competitor for the existing flat panel display technologies, like liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panel (PDP). OLEDs display is already making their way from both lab and industry research to display market and the pace of development of laboratory OLED design into a commercial product is very impressive. The OLED display offers several advantages over other display technologies, such as low power consumption, easy fabrication, high brightness & resolution, light weight, compact, flexible, wide viewing angle and fast response. However, OLED display is still in amateur stage in terms of their cost and lifetime. Despite of the abovementioned advantages of OLEDs, there still several issues that need to be addressed to explore the full potential of this display technology. The development of materials with high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), thermal and electrochemical stability, packaging, and light extracting technology are some of the major issues. Among the emitting materials, the achievement of robust blue emitting material with high PLQY and color purity is still a challenge due to its intrinsic wide bandgap and complex device configuration. The work presented in this thesis is devoted to the development of robust blue emitting materials based on fluoranthene derivatives. Fluoranthene unit has been chosen due to its blue emission, high photoluminescence quantum yield, thermal and electrochemical stability. The thesis is organized in six chapters, and a brief discussion on the content of individual chapters is provided below. Chapter 1 provides a short description of evolution of display technology and history of OLEDs. The generation wise development of emitting materials for white OLED is concisely illustrated. The working principle, function of individual layer and factors governing external quantum efficiency of OLED device are elaborated. Finally, the important prerequisite properties of blue emitting materials for OLED application are outlined. Chapter 2 reports the design and synthesis of symmetrically and asymmetrically functionalized fluoranthene-based materials to address the issue of PL quenching in solid state, and subsequently for application in non-doped electoluminescent devices. A detailed experimental and theoretical study has been performed to understand the effect of symmetric and asymmetric functional groups on optical, thermal and electrochemical properties. The fluoranthene derivatives reported in this chapter exibited deep blue emission with high PLQY in both solution and solid state. The vacuum deposited non- doped OLED devices were fabricated and characterized utilizing these materials as emitting layer. Chapter 3 describes the rationale design of thermally stable fluoranthene derivatives as electron transport materials for OLEDs. The two derivatives investigated in this chapter comprised of two fluoranthene units linked by diphenylsulfane and dibenzothiophene linkage. The effect of rigidity provided by ring closure in molecular structure on the physical and charge transport properties has been investigated. Such materials are urgently demanded for better performance and durability of displays. In an extension to chapter 3, fluoranthene based dual functional materials possessing blue light emission and electron transport characteristics are described in Chapter 4. The application of these materials in bilayer blue OLED device successfully demonstrated. The development of such dual functional materials is an important step to not just simplify the OLED device architecture; but also has the potential to reduce the manufacturing and processing cost significantly. Chapter 5 reports the synthesis of the star-shaped fluoranthene-triazine based blue photoluminescent materials for solution processable OLEDs. The effect of chalcogen on the photophysical and electroluminescence properties has been investigated. The main advantage of such solution processable materials over small molecules is to overcome the power consuming vacuum thermal evaporation technique for deposition. Chapter 6 describes the design and synthesis of a new blue emitting material comprising of a donor moiety and an acceptor unit to observe thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). However, photophysical studies did not show any sign of delayed fluorescence in this molecule. Nevertheless, a deep blue electroluminescence is achieved using a multilayer OLED device configuration.

Optofluidics is a new branch within photonics which attempts to unify concepts from optics and microfluidics. Unification of photonics and microfluidics enable us to carry out analysis of fluids through highly sensitive optical sensing device. These optical sensing devices are contained within a microchip, wherein light is made to pass through analyte (fluids of few nanoliters). The interaction between light and fluid gives rise to highly sensitive diagnostic systems. In this work the fabrication and performance characterization of a fluorescent green OLED for optofluidic applications is presented. The effect of thickness variation of hole injection (CuPc) and hole blocking (BCP) layers on the performance of fluorescent green organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been studied. Even though these two organic layers have opposite functions, yet there is a particular combination of their thicknesses when they function in conjunction and luminous efficiency and power efficiency are maximized. The optimum thickness of CuPc layer, used as hole injection layer and BCP used as hole blocking layer were found to be 18 nm and 10 nm respectively. It is with this delicate adjustment of thicknesses, charge balancing was achieved and luminous efficiency and power efficiency were optimized. Such OLEDs with higher luminance can be monolithically integrated with other optical and fluidic components on a common substrate and can function as monolithically integrated internal source of light in optofluidic sensors. In this work the analysis of a fully integrated optofluidic lab-on-a-chip sensor for refractive index and absorbance based sensing using fluorescent green organic light emitting diode (OLED) as a light source is also presented. This device consists of collinear input and output waveguides which are separated by a microfluidic channel. When light is passed through the analyte contained in the fluidic gap an optical power loss due to absorption of light takes place. Apart from absorption a mode-mismatch between collinear input and output waveguide also occurs. The degree of mode-mismatch, quantum of optical power loss due to absorption of light by the fluid forms the basis of our analysis. Detection of minutest change in refractive index and changes in concentration of species contained in the analyte is indicative of sensitivity. Various parameters which influence the sensitivity of the sensor are mode spot size, refractive index of the fluid, molar concentration of the species contained in the analyte, width of the fluidic gap, waveguide geometry. By correlating various parameters, an optimal fluidic gap distance corresponding to a particular mode spot size to achieve the best sensitivity for refractive index based sensing and absorbance based sensing have been determined.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Hongxing Jiang / InGaN based, blue and green light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been successfully produced over the past decade. But the progress of these LEDs is often limited by the fundamental problems of InGaN such as differences in lattice constants, thermal expansion coefficients and physical properties between InN and GaN. This difficulty could be addressed by studying pure InN and In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN alloys. In this context Ga-rich In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN (x≤ 0.4) epilayers were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements showed In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN films with x= 0.37 had single phase. Phase separation occurred for x ~ 0.4. To understand the issue of phase separation in Ga-rich In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN, studies on growth of pure InN and In-rich In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN alloys were carried out. InN and In-rich In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN (x~0.97- 0.40) epilayers were grown on AlN/Al[subscript]2O[subscript]3 templates. A Hall mobility of 1400 cm[superscript]2/Vs with a carrier concentration of 7x1018cm[superscript]-3 was observed for InN epilayers grown on AlN templates. Photoluminescence (PL)emission spectra revealed a band to band emission peak at ~0.75 eV for InN. This peak shifted to 1.15 eV when In content was varied from 1.0 to 0.63 in In-rich In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN epilayers. After growth parameter optimization of In- rich In[subscript]xGa[subscript]1-xN alloys with (x= 0.97-0.40) were successfully grown without phase separation. Effects of Mg doping on the PL properties of InN epilayers grown on GaN/Al[subscript]2O[subscript]3 templates were investigated. An emission line at ~ 0.76 eV, which was absent in undoped InN epilayers and was about 60 meV below the band edge emission peak at ~ 0.82 eV, was observed to be the dominant emission in Mg-doped InN epilayers. PL peak position and the temperature dependent emission intensity corroborated each other and suggested that Mg acceptor level in InN is about 60 meV above the valance band maximum. Strain effects on the emission properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) were studied using a single blue LED wafer possessing a continuous variation in compressive strain. EL emission peak position of LEDs varies linearly with the biaxial strain; a coefficient of 19 meV/GPa, characterizes the relationship between the band gap energy and biaxial stress of In[subscript]0.2Ga[subscript]0.8N/GaN MQWs.