Li-Jen Hsiao

Enhance the light-harvesting capability of the ITO-free inverted small molecule solar cell by ZnO nanorods

The ITO-free inverted SMPV1:PC71BM solar cells with an Al doped ZnO (AZO) transparent electrodes are fabricated. The AZO thin film prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique exhibits high transmission (>85%) and low sheet resistance (~30 Ω/sq) and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of devices based on AZO electrode can reach around 4%. To further enhance the light harvesting of the absorption layer of solar cells, ZnO nanorods interlayer is grown on the AZO layer before the deposition the active layer. The absorption spectrums of devices under various conditions are also simulated by RCWA method to identify the optical saturation length of the ZnO nanorods. The PCE of ITO-free inverted small molecule solar cell improved with ZnO nanorods can reach 6.6%.

Laser speckle reduction by phase range limited computer generated hologram in laser projection display system.

The speckle phenomenon is an annoyance in laser projection display systems. We propose a novel speckle suppression method that utilizes the interference concept on a pixel point, which reduces the speckle contrast (SC) of the project image by limiting the phase distribution range in the optical field. The SC formula is derived in the uniform interval phase range for partially developed speckle conditions, showing that the SC can be lowered by lessening the phase range limitation. In the ideal simulation model, the SC can be reduced from 98.77% to 0% as the phase range limitation varies from 2π to 0. The phase range limitation model is a novel method using a computer generated hologram to provide beam shaping and phase limitation. In a more realistic simulation model, the SC is reduced from 99.18% to 16.68%.

Front view and panoramic side view videoscope lens system design

A novel structure of a rigid panoramic endoscope is designed and presented. The inspected target field is imaged on the sensor by an optical lens with a dynamic mechanical module. A microgear and motor are used to drive the dynamic lens components, and a compensation element is used in the system to correct the aberrations due to the protective cylindrical endoscope cover. A long depth of field navigator lens is attached to image the front side. The design details are presented and results are shown.

Narrow-band amplified photoluminescence of amorphous silicon quantum dots via the coupling between localized surface plasmon and Fabry-Pérot cavity modes

Abstract. We experimentally investigate the multifold intensity enhancement and spectral narrowing of photoluminescence (PL) from amorphous silicon quantum dots (a-Si QDs) embedded in a silicon-rich SiOx film of the Ag/SiOx:a-Si QDs/Au plasmonic nanocavity, through the resonance coupling between the localized surface plasmon (LSP) mode and the Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavity mode, by tuning a one-dimensional (1-D) Ag grating on the top. The LSP resonance can be precisely tuned by adjusting the Ag line widths of the 1-D Ag grating. It is found that the LSP mode strongly couples with the FP cavity mode, resulting in a narrower emission line width and a larger PL enhancement. An optimized Ag grating structure is found to exhibit a narrow emission line width of 15 nm and 2.77-fold enhancement in the PL peak intensity, as compared to an SiOx:a-Si QDs/Au structure without 1-D Ag grating, due to the strong resonance coupling between the two modes.

Design and Fabrication of Nano-Structure for Three-Dimensional Display Application

A three-dimensional display system based on metal nano-grating structure is modeled. The aluminum based nano-grating structures are designed and fabricated by nano-imprint as a linear polarizer to select the transverse magnetic wave in the wavelength range of 400-700 nm. The average transmission of the nano-grating for the transverse magnetic wave is around 80% and the polarization ratio of the emission light can reach as high as 97.1%. The polarization characteristics are studied theoretically, simulated by rigorous coupled wave analysis, and verified experimentally in detail.

Improvement of power efficiency and reduction of blur effect in OLED with micro-lens array films by reducing substrate thickness

This study demonstrates that attaching micro-lens array films (MAFs) on the substrate and reducing the substrate thickness of OLED can significantly increase the power efficiency, while simultaneously reduce image blurring. Using a point source model, based on Monte-Carlo ray-tracing method, the power efficiency enhancement and reduction of blur effect are respectively discussed in three different regions of the MAFs attached substrate: partially reflecting region, transmitting region, and light guiding region of micro-lenses. According to the equations, derived with regard to the substrate thickness and the displacement from the point source and based on geometric relations corresponding to different regions, reducing the substrate thickness will result in different levels of enhancement for power efficiency in different regions. By comparing OLED with MAFs and bare OLED, the overall enhancement ratio of power efficiency is 1.46, which can be further improved to 1.78 by reducing the substrate thickness from 700 μm to 50 μm, and the blurlength is reduced from 942 μm to 255 μm. The simulation results demonstrate the possibility of applying MAFs to OLED for higher power efficiency without image degradation in display and lighting applications.

Well-aligned Vertically Oriented ZnO Nanorod Arrays and their Application in Inverted Small Molecule Solar Cells

This manuscript describes how to design and fabricate efficient inverted solar cells, which are based on a two-dimensional conjugated small molecule (SMPV1) and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM), by utilizing ZnO nanorods (NRs) grown on a high quality Al-doped ZnO (AZO) seed layer. The inverted SMPV1:PC71BM solar cells with ZnO NRs that grew on both a sputtered and sol-gel processed AZO seed layer are fabricated. Compared with the AZO thin film prepared by the sol-gel method, the sputtered AZO thin film exhibits better crystallization and lower surface roughness, according to X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements. The orientation of the ZnO NRs grown on a sputtered AZO seed layer shows better vertical alignment, which is beneficial for the deposition of the subsequent active layer, forming better surface morphologies. Generally, the surface morphology of the active layer mainly dominates the fill factor (FF) of the devices. Consequently, the well-aligned ZnO NRs can be used to improve the carrier collection of the active layer and to increase the FF of the solar cells. Moreover, as an anti-reflection structure, it can also be utilized to enhance the light harvesting of the absorption layer, with the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of solar cells reaching 6.01%, higher than the sol-gel based solar cells with an efficiency of 4.74%.

Localized surface plasmon-enhanced photoluminescence of amorphous silicon quantum dots through plasmonic subwavelength crossed metallic gratings

We investigate experimentally the enhancing effect of plasmonic subwavelength crossed Ag gratings on photoluminescence (PL) from the amorphous silicon quantum dots (a-Si QDs) embedded in a central silicon-rich SiO x film of the Ag/SiO x :a-Si QDs/Ag sandwich nanostructures. The use of the crossed Ag grating structure as the top layer in the sandwich nanostructures results in a 2-fold increase in the PL peak intensity and a 1.34-fold increase in the integrated emission intensity compared with the use of a one-dimensional (1D) Ag grating top layer, and a 1.53-fold peak intensity increase compared with that of a SiO x :a-Si QDs/Ag structure without a Ag top layer. These significant PL enhancements can be attributed to the high light-extraction efficiency of the polarization-independent crossed metallic grating structure, the strong out-coupling of localized surface plasmons (LSPs), and the strong a-Si QD–LSP coupling.

Study of lens design method for narrowing primary aberration variation during conjugate change for a finite conjugate system

Abstract. Currently, maintaining image quality during conjugate change is most frequently achieved through careful lens design with the multiconfiguration optimizing method and physical shifts of the lenses within the system such that the system remains in focus. However, in applications with operational limitations, such as endoscopy where the space available cannot allow for moving parts, the lens system needs to be designed such that the system is in focus over a wide range of conjugates. A lens design method that is integrable into existing commercial lens design software is presented. This method derives and maintains an optimal condition for astigmatism and distortion to control and reduce the overall aberration variation during the conjugate change, and extends the depth of field of the system. A side-by-side lens design comparison between the method illustrated in this study and the conventional lens design method commonly employed by designers of zoom lenses is also presented and is demonstrated to produce better results in designing conjugate change optical systems.