A sample with several green glowing perovskite quantum dots excited by a blue laser. (Photograph: IBM Research / Thilo Stöferle)
A type of quantum dot that has been intensively studied in recent years can reproduce light in every colour and is very bright. An international research team including scientists from Empa has now discovered why this is the case. The quantum dots could someday be used in LEDs. An international team of researchers from ETH Zurich , IBM Research Zurich, Empa and four American research institutions have found the explanation for why a class of nanocrystals that has been intensively studied in recent years shines in such incredibly bright colours. The nanocrystals contain caesium lead halide compounds that arrange themselves in a perovskite crystal structure. Three years ago, Maksym Kovalenko, a professor at ETH Zurich and group leader at Empa, succeeded in creating nanocrystals - or quantum dots, as they are also known - from this semiconductor material. "These tiny crystals have proved to be extremely bright and fast emitting light sources, brighter and faster than any other type of quantum dot studied so far," says Kovalenko.
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