Self-Assembled Luminescent Quantum Dots To Generate Full-Color and White Circularly Polarized Light

We investigated propagation of light through a uniaxial photonic metamaterial composed of three-dimensional gold helices arranged on a two-dimensional square lattice. These nanostructures are fabricated via an approach based on direct laser writing into a positive-tone photoresist followed by electrochemical deposition of gold. For propagation of light along the helix axis, the structure blocks the circular polarization with the same handedness as the helices, whereas it transmits the other, for a frequency range exceeding one octave. The structure is scalable to other frequency ranges and can be used as a compact broadband circular polarizer.

Metamaterials, or engineered materials with rationally designed, subwavelength-scale building blocks, allow us to control the behavior of physical fields in optical, microwave, radio, acoustic, heat transfer, and other applications with flexibility and performance that are unattainable with naturally available materials. In turn, metasurfaces-planar, ultrathin metamaterials-extend these capabilities even further. Optical metasurfaces offer the fascinating possibility of controlling light with surface-confined, flat components. In the planar photonics concept, it is the reduced dimensionality of the optical metasurfaces that enables new physics and, therefore, leads to functionalities and applications that are distinctly different from those achievable with bulk, multilayer metamaterials. Here, we review the progress in developing optical metasurfaces that has occurred over the past few years with an eye toward the promising future directions in the field.

WOLEDs offer new design opportunities in practical solid-state lighting and could play a significant role in reducing global energy consumption. Obtaining white light from organic LEDs is a considerable challenge. Alongside the development of new materials with improved color stability and balanced charge transport properties, major issues involve the fabrication of large-area devices and the development of low-cost manufacturing technology. This Review will describe the types of materials (small molecules and polymers) that have been used to fabricate WOLEDs. A range of device architectures are presented and appraised.