Plasmon-induced near-infrared electrochromism based on transparent conducting nanoparticles: Approximate performance limits Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 071903 (2012) Quantum mechanical study of plasmonic coupling in sodium nanoring dimers Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 061906 (2012) Strong two-photon fluorescence enhanced jointly by dipolar and quadrupolar modes of a single plasmonic nanostructure Appl.High absorption efficiency is particularly desirable at present for various microtechnological applications including microbolometers, photodectors, coherent thermal emitters, and solar cells.Here we report the design, characterization, and experimental demonstration of an ultrathin, wide-angle, subwavelength high performance metamaterial absorber for optical frequencies.Experimental results show that an absorption peak of 88% is achieved at the wavelength of ϳ1.58 m, though theoretical results give near perfect absorption.

A single‐junction polymer solar cell with an efficiency of 10.1% is demonstrated by using deterministic aperiodic nanostructures for broadband light harvesting with optimum charge extraction. The performance enhancement is ascribed to the self‐enhanced absorption due to collective effects, including pattern‐induced anti‐reflection and light scattering, as well as surface plasmonic resonance, together with a minimized recombination probability.

Because of their mechanical flexibility, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) hold great promise as a leading technology for display and lighting applications in wearable electronics. The development of flexible OLEDs requires high-quality transparent conductive electrodes with superior bendability and roll-to-roll manufacturing compatibility to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) anodes. Here, we present a flexible transparent conductor on plastic with embedded silver networks which is used to achieve flexible, highly power-efficient large-area green and white OLEDs. By combining an improved outcoupling structure for simultaneously extracting light in waveguide and substrate modes and reducing the surface plasmonic losses, flexible white OLEDs exhibit a power efficiency of 106 lm W(-1) at 1000 cd m(-2) with angular color stability, which is significantly higher than all other reports of flexible white OLEDs. These results represent an exciting step toward the realization of ITO-free, high-efficiency OLEDs for use in a wide variety of high-performance flexible applications.

Advanced light manipulation is extremely attractive for applications in organic optoelectronics to enhance light harvesting efficiency. A novel method of fabricating high‐efficiency organic solar cells (OSCs) is proposed using biomimetic moth eye nanostructures in a quasi‐periodic gradient shape active layer and an antireflective coating. A 24.3% increase in photocurrent is realized without sacrificing dark electrical properties, yielding a 22.2% enhancement in power conversion efficiency to a record of 7.86% for OSCs with a poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl):indene‐C60 bis‐adduct (P3HT:ICBA) active layer. The experimental and theoretical characterizations verify that the substantial improvement of OSCs is mainly ascribed to the self‐enhanced absorption resulting from the broadband polarization‐insensitive light trapping in biomimetic nanostructured active layer, the reduction in reflectance by the antireflective coating, and surface plasmonic effect excited by corrugated metallic electrode. It is noteworthy that the pathway described here is promising for opening up opportunities to realize high‐performance OSCs towards the future photovoltaic applications.

Textile displays are poised to revolutionize current electronic devices, and reshape the future of electronics and related fields such as biomedicine and soft robotics. However, they remain unavailable due to the difficulty of directly constructing electroluminescent devices onto the textile-like substrate to really display desired programmable patterns. Here, a novel textile display is developed from continuous electroluminescent fibers made by a one-step extrusion process. The resulting displaying textile is flexible, stretchable, three-dimensionally twistable, conformable to arbitrarily curved skins, and breathable, and can dynamically display a series of desired patterns, making it useful for bioinspired electronics, soft robotics, and electroluminescent skins, among other applications. It is demonstrated that these displaying textiles can also communicate with a computer and mouse brain for smart display and camouflage applications. This work may open up a new direction for the integration of wearable electroluminescent devices with the human body, providing new and promising communication platforms.