DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.incnc.2021.006
Publication date: 8th June 2021
In photon upconversion the wavelength of the light emitted upon irradiation is shortened, resulting in a gain in photon energy. To comply with energy conservation laws, this process occurs by combining two or more low energy photons. We take advantage of long-lived triplet states to store the energy. However, as triplet states are ‘spin-forbidden’, they are only weakly directly optically accessible. Therefore, so-called sensitizers are required to indirectly populate the triplet state. Triplet sensitizers span a broad range of material classes including metal-organic complexes, nanomaterials and bulk perovskite films. Understanding the energy transfer mechanism is crucial for the further advancement of optoelectronic devices based on upconversion.
The exact triplet sensitization mechanism varies depending on several factors including: (i) the absolute alignments of the sensitizer and acceptor energy levels. (ii) The exciton binding energy in the sensitizer, resulting in excited states in form of excitons or free carriers. (iii) Energetic polydispersity of a sample, which varies the energetic driving force for triplet transfer.
I will present the current status of triplet sensitization using sensitizer materials with varying dimensionalities including 0D quantum dots, 1D nanorods and 2D nanoplatelets.