Materials science

Layer (electronics)

Brightness

Quantum yield

Electroluminescence

Physics

Nanotechnology

Optics

Shell (structure)

Fluorescence

Composite material

Indium phosphide

Quantum dot

Light-emitting diode

Optoelectronics

Gallium arsenide

The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

InP quantum dots (QDs) are considered as one of the most promising candidates of Cd- or Pb-based QDs in the applications of display and lighting. However, the performances of blue InP QDs and the corresponding light emitting devices (LEDs) are far inferior to those of their red and green counterparts, which strongly limits the development of InP QD based LEDs (QLEDs) technology. Here, high quantum yield (∼81%) and large size (∼7.0 ± 0.9 nm) InP/GaP/ZnS//ZnS QDs with a thick shell have been successfully synthesized by a shell engineering approach, and the corresponding QLEDs exhibit a record brightness and external quantum efficiency of 3120 cd·m-2 and 1.01%, respectively. Large-scale density functional theory calculations on thousands-of-atoms QDs indicate that thicker-shell ones favor a more balanced carrier injection in the QD film and simultaneously suppress the FRET between closely packed QDs, which collectively contribute to the improved blue device performances.

High-Brightness Blue InP Quantum Dot-Based Electroluminescent Devices: The Role of Shell Thickness