Cadmium-Free and Efficient Type-II InP/ZnO/ZnS Quantum Dots and Their Application for LEDs.

It is a generally accepted perspective that type-II nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs) have low quantum yield due to the separation of the electron and hole wavefunctions. Recently, high quantum yield levels were reported for cadmium-based type-II QDs. Hence, the quest for finding non-toxic and efficient type-II QDs is continuing.

The Fast-Track Water Oxidation Channel on BiVO Opened by Nitrogen Treatment.

BiVO is one of the most promising photoanode materials for water-splitting systems. Nitrogen incorporation into a BiVO surface overcomes the known bottleneck in its charge-transfer kinetics into the electrolyte. We explored the role of nitrogen in the surface charge recombination and charge-transfer kinetics by employing transient photocurrent spectroscopy at the time scale of surface recombination and water oxidation kinetics, transient absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Tunable continuous-wave laser operation of Tm:BaYF near 2.3 µm.

We report, for the first time to our knowledge, tunable continuous-wave laser action in the : (BYF) crystal near 2.3 µm. In the experiments, a BYF crystal doped with 3 at.

High-Performance, Large-Area, and Ecofriendly Luminescent Solar Concentrators Using Copper-Doped InP Quantum Dots.

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are promising building blocks for luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). For their widespread use, they need to simultaneously satisfy non-toxic material content, low reabsorption, high photoluminescence quantum yield, and large-scale production. Here, copper doping of zinc carboxylate-passivated InP core and nano-engineering of ZnSe shell facilitated high in-device quantum efficiency of QDs over 80%, having well-matched spectral emission profile with the photo-response of silicon solar cells.

21 fs Cr:LiSAF laser mode locked with a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber.

We report the shortest femtosecond pulses directly generated from a solid-state laser that is mode locked by using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber (SWCNT-SA). In the experiments, we used a 660 nm diode-pumped, low-threshold extended-cavity Cr:LiSAF laser operating around 850 nm with a repetition rate of 47.9 MHz.

70 femtosecond Kerr-lens mode-locked multipass-cavity Alexandrite laser.

We report, to the best of our knowledge, the shortest femtosecond pulses generated from a Kerr-lens mode-locked (KLM) Alexandrite laser operating near 750 nm. The Alexandrite gain medium was pumped with a continuous-wave (cw), 532 nm laser, and the performance of both the short and extended resonators was investigated. The use of an extended cavity eliminated the multi-wavelength spectral instabilities observed during the cw operation of the short cavity.

1200 nm pumped Tm:LuO ceramic lasers.

We report on an experimental demonstration of a 1200-nm pumped Tm:LuO ceramic laser. By using a gain-switched, tunable Cr:forsterite laser, the excitation spectrum was measured, with optimum pumping bands centered near 1198 nm, 1204 nm, and 1211 nm. The highest slope efficiency of 21.

Femtosecond pulse generation from a Ti:sapphire laser near 800 nm with voltage reconfigurable graphene saturable absorbers.

We experimentally show that a voltage-controlled graphene-gold supercapacitor saturable absorber (VCG-gold-SA) can be operated as a fast saturable absorber with adjustable linear absorption at wavelengths as low as 795 nm. This was made possible by the use of a novel supercapacitor architecture, consisting of a high-dielectric electrolyte sandwiched between a graphene and a gold electrode. The high-dielectric electrolyte allowed continuous, reversible adjustment of the Fermi level and, hence, the optical loss of the VCG-gold-SA up to the visible wavelengths at low bias voltages of the order of a few volts (0-2 V).

Graphene-gold supercapacitor as a voltage controlled saturable absorber for femtosecond pulse generation.

We report, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, use of a graphene-gold supercapacitor as a voltage controlled fast saturable absorber for femtosecond pulse generation. The unique design involving only one graphene electrode lowers the insertion loss of the device, in comparison with capacitor designs with two graphene electrodes. Furthermore, use of the high-dielectric electrolyte allows reversible, adjustable control of the absorption level up to the visible region with low bias voltages of only a few volts (0-2 V).