Thin-film field-effect transistor is a fundamental component behind various mordern electronics. The development of stretchable electronics poses fundamental challenges in developing new electronic materials for stretchable thin-film transistors that are mechanically compliant and solution processable. Here we report the fabrication of transparent thin-film transistors that behave like an elastomer film. The entire fabrication is carried out by solution-based techniques, and the resulting devices exhibit a mobility of ∼30 cm2 V−1 s−1, on/off ratio of 103–104, switching current >100 μA, transconductance >50 μS and relative low operating voltages. The devices can be stretched by up to 50% strain and subjected to 500 cycles of repeated stretching to 20% strain without significant loss in electrical property. The thin-film transistors are also used to drive organic light-emitting diodes. The approach and results represent an important progress toward the development of stretchable active-matrix displays.

The need for affordable and reliable radiation detectors has prompted significant investment in new radiation detector materials, due to concerns about national security and nuclear nonproliferation. Plastic scintillators provide an affordable approach to large volume detectors, yet their performance for high-energy gamma radiation is severely limited by the small radiation stopping power inherent to their low atomic number. Although some sensitization attempts with organometallics were made in the 1950s to 1960s, the concomitant decrease in light yield has limited the usefulness of these sensitized detectors. Recently, with new knowledge gained during the rapid development of organic optoelectronics and nanotechnology, there has been a revived interest in the field of heavy element sensitized plastic scintillators. Here, the recent efforts on sensitized plastic scintillators are summarized. Basic scintillator physics is first reviewed. The discussion then focuses on two major thrusts in the field: sensitization with: (1) organometallics and (2) oxide and fluoride nanoparticles. The design rationales and major results are examined in detail, with existing limitations and possible future pathways discussed. Special attention is paid to the underlying energy deposition and transfer processes, as these determine the key performance metrics such as light yield and radioluminescence decay lifetime.

Spectroscopic gamma-photon detection has widespread applications for research, defense, and medical purposes. However, current commercial detectors are either prohibitively expensive for wide deployment or incapable of producing the characteristic gamma photopeak. Here we report the synthesis of transparent, ultra-high-loading (up to 60 wt %) CdZnS/ZnS core/shell quantum dot/polymer nanocomposite monoliths for gamma scintillation by in situ copolymerization of the partially methacrylate-functionalized quantum dots in a monomer solution. The efficient Förster resonance energy transfer of the high-atomic-number quantum dots to lower-band-gap organic dyes enables the extraction of quantum-dot-borne excitons for photon production, resolving the problem of severe light yield deterioration found in previous nanoparticle-loaded scintillators. As a result, the nanocomposite scintillator exhibited simultaneous improvements in both light yield (visible photons produced per MeV of gamma-photon energy) and gamma attenuation. With these enhancements, a 662 keV Cs-137 gamma photopeak with 9.8% resolution has been detected using a 60 wt % quantum-dot nanocomposite scintillator, demonstrating the potential of such a nanocomposite system in the development of high-performance low-cost spectroscopic gamma detectors.