Scientists Successfully Develop Precise Arrays of Nanoscale Light-Emitting Diodes

In a groundbreaking development, MIT researchers have successfully developed a technique to grow individual halide perovskite nanocrystals with precise control over location. This scalable and versatile method moves past traditional boundaries of nanofabrication, materials engineering, and device design.

Halide perovskites are a family of materials with superior optoelectronic properties, potentially applicable in high-performance solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and lasers. However, achieving nanoscale integration of halide perovskites has been challenging due to their susceptibility to damage by conventional fabrication and patterning techniques.

The new technique, as detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, enables the integration of nanocrystals into functional nanoscale devices. By growing the material locally with the desired features, conventional lithographic patterning steps that could introduce damage are not needed in this technique.

The size of the nanocrystals can be precisely controlled, a crucial factor as it affects their characteristics. Researchers have demonstrated this by fabricating arrays of nanoscale light-emitting diodes (nanoLEDs) using this technique.

Farnaz Niroui, senior author of the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported paper, emphasizes the importance of developing new engineering frameworks for integrating nanomaterials into functional nanodevices. She believes that this work could help realize unconventional device platforms important for addressing emerging technological needs.

NanoLED arrays could have applications in optical communication and computing, lensless microscopes, new types of quantum light sources, and high-density, high-resolution displays for augmented and virtual reality. Moreover, since the material is grown locally with the desired features, the technique is compatible with conventional fabrication steps.

The authors of the scientific article are Ke, J.; Ji, Y.; Liu, D.; Chen, J.; Wang, Y.; Li, Y.; Hu, Z.; Huang, W. The U.S. National Science Foundation supports the paper published in Nature Communications.

Manipulating matter at extreme nanoscale dimensions with these techniques could help realize unconventional device platforms important for addressing emerging technological needs. This breakthrough could pave the way for a new era of nanotechnology applications, from high-performance optoelectronic devices to quantum computing.