Hai Zhu

Upconverting Near‐Infrared Light through Energy Management in Core–Shell–Shell Nanoparticles

Lanthanide-doped upconversion materials, capable of converting low-density (< 1000 W cm ) near-infrared (NIR) excitation to ultraviolet (UV) and visible emissions, have generated a large amount of interests in the areas of information technology, biotechnology, energy, and photonics. Significantly, recent developments in the synthetic and multicolor tuning methods have allowed easy access to upconversion nanoparticles with well-defined phase and size, core–shell structure, optical emission, and surface properties. The technological advances provide promising applications in sensitive biodetection and advanced bioimaging without many of the constraints associated with conventional optical biolabels. Despite the attractions, further progress in using upconversion processes has been largely hindered because upconversion nanoparticles are typically sensitized by Yb ions that only respond to narrowband NIR excitation centered at 980 nm. The absorption of 980 nm light by the water component in biological samples usually limits deep tissue imaging and induces potential thermal damages to cells and tissues. Excitation of conventional upconversion nanoparticles at other wavelengths has been proposed to minimize the effect of water absorption. But the use of this technique is limited mainly by the largely sacrificed excitation efficiency. Efforts have also been devoted to tuning the NIR response of photon upconversion through integration of various sensitizers such as metal ions (e.g.; Nd, V or Cr) and organic dyes. The progress has resulted in visible emission by NIR excitation in the 700–900 nm range where the transparency of biological samples is maximal. However, upconversion emission across a broad range of spectra in these systems have not been demonstrated largely owing to the uncontrollable nonradiative processes. Herein, we describe a novel design, based on nanostructural engineering to separate unwanted electronic transitions for constructing a new class of materials displaying tunable upconversion emissions spanning from UV to the visible spectral region by single wavelength excitation at 808 nm. We also show that these nanoparticles can surpass the constraints associated with conventional upconversion nanoparticles for biological studies. The nanostructure design for management of energy transitions is depicted in Figure 1. A core–shell–shell nanoparticle platform is used to host light-harvesting, upconvert-

Low‐Threshold Electrically Pumped Random Lasers

Electrically pumped random lasers are realized in ZnO nanocrystallite films in a simple metal-oxide-semiconductor structure. By introducing an i-ZnO layer, a threshold current of 6.5 mA is obtained. The reported results provide a simple route to electrically pumped random lasing (see figure) with relatively low threshold, a significant step towards the future applications of this kind of laser.

Observation of Lasing Emission from Carbon Nanodots in Organic Solvents

Lasing is observed from carbon nanodots (C-dots) dispersed into a layer of poly(ethylene glycol) coated on the surface of optical fibers under 266 nm optical excitation. This is due to the enhancement of photoluminescence intensity via the esterification of carboxylic groups of the C-dots, and the formation of high-Q cylindrical microcavities to support second-type whispering gallery modes.

Amplified spontaneous emission and lasing from lanthanide-doped up-conversion nanocrystals.

Lanthanide-doped nanocrystals (NCs), which found applications in bioimaging and labeling, have recently demonstrated significant improvement in up-conversion efficiency. Here, we report the first up-conversion multicolor microcavity lasers by using NaYF4:Yb/Er@NaYF4 core-shell NCs as the gain medium. It is shown that the optical gain of the NCs, which arises from the 2- and 3-photon up-conversion processes, can be maximized via sequential pulses pumping. Amplified spontaneous emission is observed from a Fabry-Perot cavity containing the NCs dispersed in cyclohexane solution. By coating a drop of silica resin containing the NCs onto an optical fiber, a microcavity with a bottle-like geometry is fabricated. It is demonstrated that the microcavity supports lasing emission through the formation of whispering gallery modes.

Wide-bandwidth lasing from C-dot/epoxy nanocomposite Fabry–Perot cavities with ultralow threshold

We show that by maximizing the amount of organosilane functional groups, the quantum yield of surface functionalized carbon nanodots (C-dots) dispersed in epoxy can be enhanced to 68% under optical excitation at 450 nm wavelength. This is the highest quantum yield ever recorded for C-dots at such an excitation wavelength. Lasing emission can also be demonstrated from a Fabry–Perot cavity by using C-dots as the gain medium. The lasing threshold is found to be ∼200 W cm−2 which is 2 orders of magnitude lower than that provided in the recent reports. Furthermore, tunable single-mode lasing over a bandwidth of ∼60 nm wide is achieved from the Fabry–Perot cavity in the Littrow configuration.

Low-threshold electrically pumped ultraviolet laser diode

Electrically pumped ultraviolet lasing has been realized in a Au/MgO/MgZnO/n-ZnO structure. The lasing is located at around 330 nm. Notably the threshold of the lasing is about 30.0 mA, over one order of magnitude smaller than the corresponding values reported before.

Structural Engineering for High Sensitivity, Ultrathin Pressure Sensors Based on Wrinkled Graphene and Anodic Aluminum Oxide Membrane

Nature-motivated pressure sensors have been greatly important components integrated into flexible electronics and applied in artificial intelligence. Here, we report a high sensitivity, ultrathin, and transparent pressure sensor based on wrinkled graphene prepared by a facile liquid-phase shrink method. Two pieces of wrinkled graphene are face to face assembled into a pressure sensor, in which a porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane with the thickness of only 200 nm was used to insulate the two layers of graphene. The pressure sensor exhibits ultrahigh operating sensitivity (6.92 kPa-1), resulting from the insulation in its inactive state and conduction under compression. Formation of current pathways is attributed to the contact of graphene wrinkles through the pores of AAO membrane. In addition, the pressure sensor is also an on/off and energy saving device, due to the complete isolation between the two graphene layers when the sensor is not subjected to any pressure. We believe that our high-performance pressure sensor is an ideal candidate for integration in flexible electronics, but also paves the way for other 2D materials to be involved in the fabrication of pressure sensors.

Directional single-mode emission from coupled whispering gallery resonators realized by using ZnS microbelts

Ring microcavities were formed by wrapping ZnS microbelts, which act as the waveguide and gain region of the microcavities on the surface of optical fibers. The ring microcavities with the formation of whispering gallery modes have lasing threshold lower (Q-factor higher) than that of the ZnS microbelts. The excitation of TM modes could also be suppressed by the ring geometries of ZnS microbelts. Furthermore, directional single-mode lasing was realized from a coupled asymmetric ring microcavity. The Vernier coupling effect and deformed geometry of the asymmetric ring microcavity were contributed to the stable single-mode operation and directional emission, respectively.

Capacitive Pressure Sensor with High Sensitivity and Fast Response to Dynamic Interaction Based on Graphene and Porous Nylon Networks

Flexible pressure sensors are of great importance to be applied in artificial intelligence and wearable electronics. However, assembling a simple structure, high-performance capacitive pressure sensor, especially for monitoring the flow of liquids, is still a big challenge. Here, on the basis of a sandwich-like structure, we propose a facile capacitive pressure sensor optimized by a flexible, low-cost nylon netting, showing many merits including a high response sensitivity (0.33 kPa-1) in a low-pressure regime (<1 kPa), an ultralow detection limit as 3.3 Pa, excellent working stability after more than 1000 cycles, and synchronous monitoring for human pulses and clicks. More important, this sensor exhibits an ultrafast response speed (<20 ms), which enables its detection for the fast variations of a small applied pressure from the morphological changing processes of a droplet falling onto the sensor. Furthermore, a capacitive pressure sensor array is fabricated for demonstrating the ability to spatial pressure distribution. Our developed pressure sensors show great prospects in practical applications such as health monitoring, flexible tactile devices, and motion detection.

Lasing characteristics of random cylindrical microcavity lasers

Room-temperature lasing characteristics of random cylindrical microcavity lasers, which can be realized by coating a layer of random gain medium onto the surface of an optical fiber with various diameters, was studied experimentally. It is shown that closed-loop random modes excited inside the random gain medium are strongly confined along the radial direction so that the spacing of lasing modes is controlled by the diameter of cylindrical microcavity. In addition, lasing threshold of the random gain medium can be reduced by an order of magnitude under the influence of radial optical confinement.