Hong-Hua Fang

Time-resolved fluorescence study of aggregation-induced emission enhancement by restriction of intramolecular charge transfer state.

Cyano-substituted oligo (alpha-phenylenevinylene)-1,4-bis(R-cyano-4-diphenylaminostyryl)-2,5-diphenylbenzene (CNDPASDB) molecules are studied in solution and aggregate state by time-resolved fluorescence techniques. CNDPASDB exhibits a strong solvent polarity dependent characteristic of aggregation-induced emission (AIE). By time-dependent spectra, the gradual transition from local excited state to intramolecular charge transfer state with the increasing solvent polarity is clearly resolved. The transition time in high polarity solvent DMF is very fast, around 0.5 ps, resulting in a low fluorescence quantum yield. While in aggregate state, the intramolecular torsion is restricted and the local environment becomes less polar. Thus, the intramolecular charge transfer state is eliminated and efficient AIE occurs.

Phenylalkylamine Passivation of Organolead Halide Perovskites Enabling High-Efficiency and Air-Stable Photovoltaic Cells

Benzylamine is introduced as a surface passivation molecule that improves the moisture-resistance of the perovskites while simultaneously enhancing their electronic properties. Solar cells based on benzylamine-modified formamidinium lead iodide perovskite films exhibit a champion efficiency of 19.2% and an open-circuit voltage of 1.12 V. The modified FAPbI3 films exhibit no degradation after >2800 h air exposure.

High numerical aperture microlens arrays of close packing

Closed-packed high numerical aperture (NA) microlens arrays (MLA) are highly desirable for high resolution imaging and high signal-to-noise-ratio detection in micro-optical and integrated optical applications. However, realization of such devices remains technically challenging. Here, we report high quality fabrication of curved surfaces and MLAs by taking the full advantage of surface self-smoothing effect by creating highly reproducible voxels and by adopting an equal-arc scanning strategy. MLA of approximately 100% fill ratio and NA of 0.46, much greater than those ever reported, 0.13, is demonstrated, whose excellent optical performance was approved by the sharp focusing and high resolution imaging.

Ultrahigh sensitivity of methylammonium lead tribromide perovskite single crystals to environmental gases

Extremely low surface trap densities and ultrahigh sensitivity to oxygen and water molecules are demonstrated in perovskite single crystals. One of the limiting factors to high device performance in photovoltaics is the presence of surface traps. Hence, the understanding and control of carrier recombination at the surface of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite is critical for the design and optimization of devices with this material as the active layer. We demonstrate that the surface recombination rate (or surface trap state density) in methylammonium lead tribromide (MAPbBr3) single crystals can be fully and reversibly controlled by the physisorption of oxygen and water molecules, leading to a modulation of the photoluminescence intensity by over two orders of magnitude. We report an unusually low surface recombination velocity of 4 cm/s (corresponding to a surface trap state density of 108 cm−2) in this material, which is the lowest value ever reported for hybrid perovskites. In addition, a consistent modulation of the transport properties in single crystal devices is evidenced. Our findings highlight the importance of environmental conditions on the investigation and fabrication of high-quality, perovskite-based devices and offer a new potential application of these materials to detect oxygen and water vapor.

One-step preparation of regular micropearl arrays for two-direction controllable anisotropic wetting.

In this paper, one simple method to control two-direction anisotropic wetting by regular micropearl arrays was demonstrated. Various micropearl arrays with large area were rapidly fabricated by a kind of improved laser interference lithography. Specially, we found that the parallel contact angle (CA) theta(2) decreased from 93 degrees to 67 degrees as the intensity ratio of four laser beams increased from 2:1 to 30:1, while the perpendicular CA theta(1) determined by the thickness of the resin remained constant. This was interpreted as the decrease of height variations Delta h from 1100 to 200 nm along the parallel direction caused by the increase of the intensity ratio. According to this rule, both theta(1) and theta(2) could be simultaneously controlled by adjusting the height variation Delta h and the resin thickness. Moreover, by combining appropriate design and low surface energy modification, a natural anisotropic rice leaf exhibiting CAs of 146 degrees +/- 2 degrees/153 degrees +/- 3 degrees could be mimicked by our anisotropic biosurface with the CAs 145 degrees +/- 1 degrees/150 degrees +/- 2 degrees. We believe that these controlled anisotropic biosurfaces will be helpful for designing smart, fluid-controllable interfaces that may be applied in novel microfluidic devices, evaporation-driven micro/nanostructures, and liquid microdroplet directional transfer.

Origin of the increased open circuit voltage in PbS-CdS core-shell quantum dot solar cells

Lead sulfide quantum dots (PbS QDs) show great potential for efficient, low cost photovoltaic applications. Currently, device efficiencies are limited by the high density of trap states caused by lattice imperfections on the QD surface. Introducing a thin shell of a wide bandgap semiconductor to the QD surface is a promising method to passivate these trap states. Here we demonstrate solar cells made from PbS–CdS core–shell QDs, yielding a 147 mV increase in VOC compared to core only PbS QDs. We explore the physical reason for this enhancement and demonstrate that it is indeed caused by improved passivation of the PbS surface by the CdS shell, leading to a lower electron trap density.

Photoexcitation dynamics in solution-processed formamidinium lead iodide perovskite thin films for solar cell applications

Formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) is a newly developed hybrid perovskite that potentially can be used in high-efficiency solution-processed solar cells. Here, the temperature-dependent dynamic optical properties of three types of FAPbI3 perovskite films (fabricated using three different precursor systems) are comparatively studied. The time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectra reveal that FAPbI3 films made from the new precursor (a mixture of formamidinium iodide and hydrogen lead triiodide) exhibit the longest lifetime of 439 ns at room temperature, suggesting a lower number of defects and lower non-radiative recombination losses compared with FAPbI3 obtained from the other two precursors. From the temperature-dependent PL spectra, a phase transition in the films is clearly observed. Meanwhile, exciton-binding energies of 8.1 and 18 meV for the high- and low-temperature phases are extracted, respectively. Importantly, the PL spectra for all of the samples show a single peak at room temperature, whereas at liquid-helium temperature the emission features two peaks: one in higher energy displaying a fast decay (0.5 ns) and a second red-shifted peak with a decay of up to several microseconds. These two emissions, separated by ~18 meV, are attributed to free excitons and bound excitons with singlet and triplet characters, respectively.

Two-photon excited highly polarized and directional upconversion emission from slab organic crystals

Effective upconversion emission from an organic crystal of cyano-substituted oligo (p-phenylenevinylene) (CNDPASDB) based on two-photon absorption is presented. Frequency upconverted cavityless lasing, or amplified spontaneous emission, from the crystal pumped by a femtosecond laser of 800 nm was observed when the excitation energy exceeded the threshold of 1.3 mJpulse(-1)cm(-2). Its polarization contrast was estimated to be approximately 0.93. This large ratio is due to the unified unidirectional configuration of the molecular long axis in crystal, beneficial to the stimulated emission with a low threshold. These results indicate that the present CNDPASDB crystal has a potential for upconversion laser device application.

A simple strategy to realize biomimetic surfaces with controlled anisotropic wetting

The study of anisotropic wetting has become one of the most important research areas in biomimicry. However, realization of controlled anisotropic surfaces remains challenging. Here we investigated anisotropic wetting on grooves with different linewidth, period, and height fabricated by laser interference lithography and found that the anisotropy strongly depended on the height. The anisotropy significantly increased from 9° to 48° when the height was changed from 100 nm to 1.3 μm. This was interpreted by a thermodynamic model as a consequence of the increase of free energy barriers versus the height increase. According to the relationship, controlled anisotropic surfaces were rapidly realized by adjusting the grooves’ height that was simply accomplished by changing the resin thickness. Finally, the perpendicular contact angle was further enhanced to 131°±2° by surface modification, which was very close to 135°±3° of a common grass leaf.

N-type polymers as electron extraction layers in hybrid perovskite solar cells with improved ambient stability

We studied three n-type polymers of the naphthalenediimide-bithiophene family as electron extraction layers (EELs) in hybrid perovskite solar cells. The recombination mechanism in these devices is found to be heavily influenced by the EEL transport properties. The maximum efficiency of the devices using the n-type polymers EELs did not exceed substantially that of the devices using PC60BM (about 11%), while a substantial improvement in their ambient stability (87% of the initial value after 270 minutes) compared to that using PC60BM (3.5% of the initial value after 270 minutes) was detected.