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Bidirectional optical signal transmission between two identical devices using perovskite diodes

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Abstract

The integration of optical signal generation and reception into one device—thus allowing a bidirectional optical signal transmission between two identical devices—is of value in the development of miniaturized and integrated optoelectronic devices. However, conventional solution-processable semiconductors have intrinsic material and design limitations that prevent them from being used to create such devices with a high performance. Here we report an efficient solution-processed perovskite diode that is capable of working in both emission and detection modes. The device can be switched between modes by changing the bias direction, and it exhibits light emission with an external quantum efficiency of over 21% and a light detection limit on a subpicowatt scale. The operation speed for both functions can reach tens of megahertz. Benefiting from the small Stokes shift of perovskites, our diodes exhibit a high specific detectivity (more than 2 × 1012 Jones) at its peak emission (~804 nm), which allows an optical signal exchange between two identical diodes. To illustrate the potential of the dual-functional diode, we show that it can be used to create a monolithic pulse sensor and a bidirectional optical communication system.

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Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of the dual-functional perovskite diode used as the light-emitting and detecting devices.
Fig. 2: Characterizations of the perovskite diodes when working as the light emitter.
Fig. 3: Characterizations of the perovskite diode when working as a photodetector.
Fig. 4: Photoresponse characteristics of the perovskite diode working as a photodetector to light emitted from another identical diode that works as an LED.
Fig. 5: Demonstration of the dual-functional perovskite diode for applications in biomedicine and optical communications.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Kovalenko for helpful discussions. This work is supported by the ERC Starting Grant (Grant no. 717026), the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 91733302), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos 51472164 and 61704077), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant no. 61725502), the 1000 Talents Program for Young Scientists of China, Shenzhen Peacock Plan (Grant no. KQTD2016053112042971), the Educational Commission of Guangdong Province (Grant no. 2015KGJHZ006), the Key Projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China (61935017), the Projects of International Cooperation and Exchanges NSFC (51811530018), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20171007), the European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (691210), the Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linköping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU no. 2009-00971), the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics PhD short-term visiting scholar project (Grant no. 180608DF06) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M622744 and 2018T110886). W.H. acknowledges the support from Synergetic Innovation Center for Organic Electronics & Information Displays. F.G. is a Wallenberg Academy Fellow.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: C. Bao, W. Xu, J. Yang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Chunxiong Bao, Weidong Xu, Jie Yang, Sai Bai, Pengpeng Teng & Feng Gao

  2. International Collaborative Laboratory of 2D Materials for Optoelectronics Science and Technology, Institute of Microscale Optoelectronics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Chunxiong Bao, Jie Yang & Wenjing Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (KLOFE) and Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing Tech University (NanjingTech), Nanjing, China

    Weidong Xu, Jianpu Wang & Wei Huang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China

    Pengpeng Teng & Ying Yang

  5. Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Ni Zhao

  6. Shaanxi Institute of Flexible Electronics (SIFE), Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi’an, China

    Wei Huang

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  1. Chunxiong Bao
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Contributions

F.G. and C.B. conceived the idea; W.X. and P.T. fabricated the perovskite devices and performed the EL efficiency characterizations; C.B. and J.Y. performed the EL speed and photodetection measurements and the application demonstrations; S.B. synthesized and tailored the ZnO nanocrystal and contributed to improve the device performance; F.G., W.H. and W.Z. guided the experiments and discussed the data; F.G., C.B., W.X., J.Y. and S.B. wrote and revised the manuscript, J.W., N.Z. and Y.Y. contributed to the results analysis and the revision of the manuscript. F.G. supervised the project. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wenjing Zhang, Wei Huang or Feng Gao.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Note 1, Figs. 1–13 and refs. 1–5.

Supplementary Video 1

Demonstration video of heart pulse monitor.

Supplementary Video 2

Demonstration video of audio transmission.

Supplementary Video 3

Demonstration video of bidirectional optical communication.

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Bao, C., Xu, W., Yang, J. et al. Bidirectional optical signal transmission between two identical devices using perovskite diodes. Nat Electron 3, 156–164 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-0382-3

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