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The on-chip measurement of polarization states plays an increasingly crucial role in modern sensing and imaging applications. While high-performance monolithic linearly polarized photodetectors have been extensively studied, integrated circularly polarized light (CPL) photodetectors are still hindered by inadequate discrimination capability. In this study, we employ achiral all-dielectric nanostructures to develop a broadband CPL photodetector with an impressive discrimination ratio of ~107 at the wavelength of 405 nm, significantly surpassing its counterparts by two orders of magnitude. Our device shows outstanding CPL discrimination capability across the visible band without requiring intensity calibration. Its function mechanism is based on the CPL-dependent near-field modes within achiral structures: under left or right CPL illumination, distinct near-field modes are excited, resulting in asymmetric irradiation of the two electrodes and generating a photovoltage with directions determined by the chirality of the incident light field. The proposed design strategy facilitates the realization of ultra-compact CPL detection across diverse materials, structures, and spectral ranges, presenting a novel avenue for achieving high-performance monolithic CPL detection., Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures

Charge carrier dynamics essentially determine the performance of various optoelectronic applications of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals. Among them, two-dimensional nanoplatelets provide new adjustment freedom for their unique core/crown heterostructure. Herein, we demonstrate that by fine-tuning the core size and the lateral quantum confinement, the charge carrier transfer rate from the crown to the core can be varied by one order of magnitude in CdSe/CdSeS core/alloy-crown nanoplatelets. In addition, the transfer can be affected by a carrier blocking mechanism, i.e., the filled carriers hinder further possible transfer. Furthermore, we found that the biexciton interaction is oppositely affected by quantum confinement and electron delocalization, resulting in a non-monotonic variation of the biexciton binding energy with the emission wavelength. This work provides new observations and insights into the charge carrier transfer dynamics and exciton interactions in colloidal nanoplatelets and will promote their further applications in lasing, display, sensing, etc., Comment: main and SI

Pollutant exposure during gestation is a known and adverse factor for birth and health outcomes. However, the links between prenatal air pollution exposures and educational outcomes are less clear, in particular the critical windows of susceptibility during pregnancy. Using a large cohort of students in North Carolina, we study the link between prenatal daily $\mbox{PM}_{2.5}$ exposure and 4th end-of-grade reading scores. We develop and apply a locally adaptive and highly scalable Bayesian regression model for scalar responses with functional and scalar predictors. The proposed model pairs a B-spline basis expansion with dynamic shrinkage priors to capture both smooth and rapidly-changing features in the regression surface. The model is accompanied by a new decision analysis approach for functional regression that extracts the critical windows of susceptibility and guides the model interpretations. These tools help to identify and address broad limitations with the interpretability of functional regression models. Simulation studies demonstrate more accurate point estimation, more precise uncertainty quantification, and far superior window selection than existing approaches. Leveraging the proposed modeling, computational, and decision analysis framework, we conclude that prenatal $\mbox{PM}_{2.5}$ exposure during early and late pregnancy is most adverse for 4th end-of-grade reading scores., Comment: Main paper: 32 pages, 11 figures Supplementary materials: 10 pages, 5 figures

Plasmon decay via the surface or interface is a critical process for practical energy conversion and plasmonic catalysis. However, the relationship between plasmon damping and the coupling between the plasmon and 2D materials is still unclear. The spectral splitting due to plasmon-exciton interaction impedes the conventional single-particle method to evaluate the plasmon damping rate by the spectral linewidth directly. Here, we investigated the interaction between a single gold nanorod (GNR) and 2D materials using the single-particle spectroscopy method assisted with in situ nanomanipulation technique by comparing scattering intensity and linewidth together. Our approach allows us to indisputably identify that the plasmon-exciton coupling in the GNR-WSe2 hybrid would induce plasmon damping. We can also isolate the contribution between the charge transfer channel and resonant energy transfer channel for the plasmon decay in the GNR-graphene hybrid by comparing that with thin hBN layers as an intermediate medium to block the charge transfer. We find out that the contact layer between the GNR and 2D materials contributes most of the interfacial plasmon damping. These findings contribute to a deep understanding of interfacial excitonic effects on the plasmon and 2D materials hybrid.

Solution-processed planar perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) promise high-performance and cost-effective electroluminescent (EL) devices ideal for large-area display and lighting applications. Exploiting emission layers with high ratios of horizontal transition dipole moments (TDMs) is expected to boost photon outcoupling of planar LEDs. However, LEDs based on anisotropic perovskite nanoemitters remains to be inefficient (external quantum efficiency, EQE <5%), due to the difficulties of simultaneously controlling the orientations of TDMs, achieving high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and realizing charge balance in the films of the assembled nanostructures. Here we demonstrate efficient EL from an in-situ grown continuous perovskite film comprising of a monolayer of face-on oriented nanoplatelets. The ratio of horizontal TDMs of the perovskite nanoplatelet films is ~84%, substantially higher than that of isotropic emitters (67%). The nanoplatelet film shows a high PLQY of ~75%. These merits enable LEDs with a peak EQE of 23.6%, representing the most efficient perovskite LEDs., Comment: 52 pages, 23 figures

Second-order nonlinear optical interactions, including second harmonic generation (SHG) and sum-frequency generation (SFG), can reveal a wealth of information about chemical, electronic, and vibrational dynamics at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate a powerful and flexible new approach, called phase-modulated degenerate parametric amplification (DPA). The technique, which allows for facile retrieval of both the amplitude and phase of the second-order nonlinear optical response, has many advantages over conventional or heterodyne-detected SHG, including the flexibility to detect the signal at either the second harmonic or fundamental field wavelength. We demonstrate the capabilities of this approach by imaging multi-grain flakes of single-layer MoS2. We identify the absolute crystal orientation of each MoS2 domain and resolve grain boundaries with high signal contrast and sub-diffraction-limited spatial resolution. This robust all-optical method can be used to characterize structure and dynamics in organic and inorganic systems, including biological tissue, soft materials, and metal and semiconductor nanostructures, and is particularly well-suited for imaging in media that are absorptive or highly scattering to visible and ultraviolet light.

We report the direct observation of coupling between a single self-assembled InAs quantum dot and a wetting layer, based on strong diamagnetic shifts of many-body exciton states using magneto-photoluminescence spectroscopy. An extremely large positive diamagnetic coefficient is observed when an electron in the wetting layer combines with a hole in the quantum dot; the coefficient is nearly one order of magnitude larger than that of the exciton states confined in the quantum dots. Recombination of electrons with holes in a quantum dot of the coupled system leads to an unusual negative diamagnetic effect, which is five times stronger than that in a pure quantum dot system. This effect can be attributed to the expansion of the wavefunction of remaining electrons in the wetting layer or the spread of electrons in the excited states of the quantum dot to the wetting layer after recombination. In this case, the wavefunction extent of the final states in the quantum dot plane is much larger than that of the initial states because of the absence of holes in the quantum dot to attract electrons. The properties of emitted photons that depend on the large electron wavefunction extents in the wetting layer indicate that the coupling occurs between systems of different dimensionality, which is also verified from the results obtained by applying a magnetic field in different configurations. This study paves a new way to observe hybrid states with zero- and two-dimensional structures, which could be useful for investigating the Kondo physics and implementing spin-based solid-state quantum information processing., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures in Nano Research, 2015

We study the coupling between photonic molecules and waveguides in photonic crystal slab structures using finite-difference time-domain method and coupled mode theory. In a photonic molecule with two cavities, the coupling of cavity modes results in two super-modes with symmetric and anti-symmetric field distributions. When two super-modes are excited simultaneously, the energy of electric field oscillates between the two cavities. To excite and probe the energy oscillation, we integrate photonic molecule with two photonic crystal waveguides. In coupled structure, we find that the quality factors of two super-modes might be different because of different field distributions of super-modes. After optimizing the radii of air holes between two cavities of photonic molecule, nearly equal quality factors of two super-modes are achieved, and coupling strengths between the waveguide modes and two super-modes are almost the same. In this case, complete energy oscillations between two cavities can be obtained with a pumping source in one waveguide, which can be read out by another waveguide. Finally, we demonstrate that the designed structure can be used for ultrafast optical switching with a time scale of a few picoseconds., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures

Controlling single-particle wave functions in single semiconductor quantum dots is in demand to implement solid-state quantum information processing and spintronics. Normally, particle wave functions can be tuned transversely by an perpendicular magnetic field. We report a longitudinal wave function control in single quantum dots with a magnetic field. For a pure InAs quantum dot with a shape of pyramid or truncated pyramid, the hole wave function always occupies the base because of the less confinement at base, which induces a permanent dipole oriented from base to apex. With applying magnetic field along the base-apex direction, the hole wave function shrinks in the base plane. Because of the linear changing of the confinement for hole wave function from base to apex, the center of effective mass moves up during shrinking process. Due to the uniform confine potential for electrons, the center of effective mass of electrons does not move much, which results in a permanent dipole moment change and an inverted electron-hole alignment along the magnetic field direction. Manipulating the wave function longitudinally not only provides an alternative way to control the charge distribution with magnetic field but also a new method to tune electron-hole interaction in single quantum dots., Comment: 19 pages,3 figures

We report a photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy study of charge state control in single self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots by applying electric and/or magnetic fields at 4.2 K. Neutral and charged exciton complexes were observed under applied bias voltages from -0.5 V to 0.5 V by controlling the carrier tunneling. The highly negatively charged exciton emission becomes stronger with increasing pumping power, arising from the fact that electrons have a smaller effective mass than holes and are more easily captured by the quantum dots. The integrated PL intensity of negatively charged excitons is affected significantly by a magnetic field applied along the sample growth axis. This observation is explained by a reduction in the electron drift velocity caused by an applied magnetic field, which increases the probability of non-resonantly excited electrons being trapped by localized potentials at the wetting layer interface, and results in fewer electrons distributed in the quantum dots. The hole drift velocity is also affected by the magnetic field, but it is much weaker., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

We report on a photodetector in which colloidal quantum-dots directly bridge nanometer-spaced electrodes. Unlike in conventional quantum-dot thin film photodetectors, charge mobility no longer plays a role in our quantum-dot junctions as charge extraction requires only two individual tunnel events. We find an efficient photoconductive gain mechanism with external quantum-efficiencies of 38 electrons-per-photon in combination with response times faster than 300 ns. This compact device-architecture may open up new routes for improved photodetector performance in which efficiency and bandwidth do not go at the cost of one another.