Inverse design of omnidirectional coherent absorbers for optical power beaming applications.

An efficient photovoltaic power converter is a critical element in laser power beaming systems for maximizing the end-to-end power transfer efficiency while minimizing beam reflections from the receiver for safety considerations. We designed a multilayer absorber that can efficiently trap monochromatic light from broad incident angles. The proposed design is built on the concept of a one-way coherent absorber with inverse-designed aperiodic multilayer front- and back-reflectors that enable maximal optical absorption in a thin-film photovoltaic material for broad angles. We argue that the broad bandwidth is achieved through an optimization search process that automatically engineers the modal content of the cavity to create multiple overlapping resonant modes at the desired angle or frequency range. A realistic design is provided based on GaAs thin films with inverse-designed multilayer binary AlAs/AlGaAs mirrors. The proposed device can pave the way for efficient optical power beaming systems.

Long Electron-Hole Separation of ZnO-CdS Core-Shell Quantum Dots.

The tunability of electronic and optical properties of semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs) has been an important subject in nanotechnology. While control of the emission property of QDs in wavelength has been studied extensively, control of the emission lifetime of QDs has not been explored in depth. In this report, ZnO-CdS core-shell QDs were synthesized in a two-step process, in which we initially synthesized ZnO core particles, and then stepwise slow growth of CdS shells followed. The coating of a CdS shell on a ZnO core increased the exciton lifetime more than 100 times that of the core ZnO QD, and the lifetime was further extended as the thickness of shell increased. This long electron-hole recombination lifetime is due to a unique staggered band alignment between the ZnO core and CdS shell, so-called type II band alignment, where the carrier excitation holes and electrons are spatially separated at the core and shell, and the exciton lifetime becomes extremely sensitive to the thickness of the shell. Here, we demonstrated that the emission lifetime becomes controllable with the thickness of the shell in ZnO-CdS core-shell QDs. The longer excitonic lifetime of type II QDs could be beneficial in fluorescence-based sensors, medical imaging, solar cells photovoltaics, and lasers.

Zinc oxide quantum rods.

Nanoscale zinc oxide (ZnO) rods of diameters close to the Bohr-exciton radius ( approximately 2 nm) can be prepared from a simple acetate precursor, resulting in ligand-capped rods of ZnO, highly dispersible in nonpolar solvents. Zinc oxide, ZnO, is a wide band-gap semiconductor with applications in blue/ultraviolet (UV) optoelectronic devices and piezoelectric devices. We observe self-assembly into uniform stacks of nanorods aligned parallel to each other with respect to the long axis, and photoluminescence measurements provide evidence for one-dimensional quantum confinement.