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Nano Research 2022, 15(6): 5492-5499 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4170-4
Research Article | Issue | Published: 28 March 2022

Flexible, stretchable, and transparent InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells/polyacrylamide hydrogel-based light emitting diodes

Show Author's Information Jiwei Chen1,2,§,  Jiangwen Wang2,3,§,  Keyu Ji1,2,  Bing Jiang1,2,  Xiao Cui2,3,  Wei Sha2,3,  Bingjun Wang1,2,  Xinhuan Dai2,3,  Qilin Hua2,3( ),  Lingyu Wan1( ),  Weiguo Hu1,2,3( )
Center on Nanoenergy Research, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Energy and Sensor, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China
School of Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

§ Jiwei Chen and Jiangwen Wang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
hydrogel, light emitting diode (LED), piezo-phototronic effect, InGaN/GaN, multiple quantum wells
Topics:
Nano device
Cite this article:
Chen J, Wang J, Ji K, et al. Flexible, stretchable, and transparent InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells/polyacrylamide hydrogel-based light emitting diodes. Nano Research, 2022, 15(6): 5492-5499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4170-4
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Visualization is a direct, efficient, and simple interface method to realize the interaction between human and machine, whereas the flexible display unit, as the major bottleneck, still deeply hinders the advances of wearable and virtual reality devices. To obtain flexible optoelectronic devices, one of the effective methods is to transfer a high-efficient and long-lifetime inorganic optoelectronic film from its rigid epitaxial substrate to a foreign flexible/soft substrate. Additionally, piezo-phototronic effect is a fundamental theory for guiding the design of flexible optoelectronic devices. Herein, we demonstrate a flexible, stretchable, and transparent InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs)/polyacrylamide (PAAM) hydrogel-based light emitting diode coupling with the piezo-phototronic effect. The quantum well energy band and integrated luminous intensity (increased by more than 31.3%) are significantly modulated by external mechanical stimuli in the device. Benefiting from the small Young's modulus of hydrogel and weak Van der Waals force, the composite film can endure an extreme tensile condition of about 21.1% stretching with negligible tensile strains transmitted to the InGaN/GaN MQWs. And the stable photoluminescence characteristics can be observed. Moreover, the hydrogen-bond adsorption and excellent transparency of the hydrogel substrate greatly facilitate the packaging and luminescence of the optoelectronic device. And thus, such a novel integration scheme of inorganic semiconductor materials and organic hydrogel materials would help to guide the robust stretchable optoelectronic devices, and show great potential in emerging wearable devices and virtual reality applications.


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About this article

Flexible, stretchable, and transparent InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells/polyacrylamide hydrogel-based light emitting diodes

Show Author's information Jiwei Chen1,2,§, Jiangwen Wang2,3,§, Keyu Ji1,2, Bing Jiang1,2, Xiao Cui2,3, Wei Sha2,3, Bingjun Wang1,2, Xinhuan Dai2,3, Qilin Hua2,3( ), Lingyu Wan1( ), Weiguo Hu1,2,3( )
Center on Nanoenergy Research, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Beijing Key Laboratory of Micro-nano Energy and Sensor, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China
School of Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

§ Jiwei Chen and Jiangwen Wang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Visualization is a direct, efficient, and simple interface method to realize the interaction between human and machine, whereas the flexible display unit, as the major bottleneck, still deeply hinders the advances of wearable and virtual reality devices. To obtain flexible optoelectronic devices, one of the effective methods is to transfer a high-efficient and long-lifetime inorganic optoelectronic film from its rigid epitaxial substrate to a foreign flexible/soft substrate. Additionally, piezo-phototronic effect is a fundamental theory for guiding the design of flexible optoelectronic devices. Herein, we demonstrate a flexible, stretchable, and transparent InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs)/polyacrylamide (PAAM) hydrogel-based light emitting diode coupling with the piezo-phototronic effect. The quantum well energy band and integrated luminous intensity (increased by more than 31.3%) are significantly modulated by external mechanical stimuli in the device. Benefiting from the small Young's modulus of hydrogel and weak Van der Waals force, the composite film can endure an extreme tensile condition of about 21.1% stretching with negligible tensile strains transmitted to the InGaN/GaN MQWs. And the stable photoluminescence characteristics can be observed. Moreover, the hydrogen-bond adsorption and excellent transparency of the hydrogel substrate greatly facilitate the packaging and luminescence of the optoelectronic device. And thus, such a novel integration scheme of inorganic semiconductor materials and organic hydrogel materials would help to guide the robust stretchable optoelectronic devices, and show great potential in emerging wearable devices and virtual reality applications.

Keywords: hydrogel, light emitting diode (LED), piezo-phototronic effect, InGaN/GaN, multiple quantum wells

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 14 November 2021
Revised: 24 December 2021
Accepted: 17 January 2022
Published: 28 March 2022
Issue date: April 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors thank for the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61904012, 52192610, and 52173298), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFA1201603).

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