Self‐Limited Nanocrystallization‐Mediated Activation of Semiconductor Nanocrystal in an Amorphous Solid

Abstract

The construction of semiconductor nanocrystal (SNC)‐based composites is of fundamental importance for various applications, including telecommunication, lasers, photovoltaics, and spintronics. The major challenges are the intentional insertion of dopants into SNCs for expanding their intrinsic functionalities and the scalable incorporation of activated SNCs into host free of hydroxyl and organic species for stabilizing and integrating their performances. An in situ approach is presented to couple the SNC doping and loading processes through self‐limiting nanocrystallization of glassy phase, enabling one‐step construction of fully transparent Ga2O3 SNC–glass nanocomposites. It is shown that the intentional introduction of various cation/anion impurities (e.g., F−, In3+, and Ni2+) or their combinations into Ga2O3 SNCs can be realized by taking advantage of the viscous glass matrix to enhance the desorption barrier of impurity on the SNC surface and strengthen its tendency to incorporate into the SNC lattice. The composite can be rationally activated to show wavelength‐tunable and broadband luminescence covering the spectral ranges of near ultraviolet, visible, and near‐infrared wavebands. The approach is predicted to be general to other SNC materials for functional modulations and will be promising for scalable fabrication of novel SNC‐based composites.

Heterogeneous-surface-mediated crystallization control

“…14,15 The strategy starts with a melt-quenching process for producing a highly homogeneous bulk glass, followed by a thermal activation allowing for in situ precipitation of crystalline domains within the matrix. As the nanocrystallization process in a viscous glassy phase is accompanied by a local enrichment in glass-forming elements around the nanocrystals precipitated, the viscosity at the glass-crystal interface will progressively increase.…”

Controlling the Metastable States of Glasses by External Fields

“…We started systematic research on fundamentals and applications of external fields, that is, temperature‐, ultraviolet light‐, X‐ray‐, electron beam‐, fs laser‐, and magnetic field‐induced structures in glasses in 1995 . Personally, I was much interested in the active ions‐ or clusters‐doped glasses as active ions, for example, rare‐earth (RE) and transition metal (TM) ions, show various optical, magnetic, and superconductive properties.…”

Bismuth-doped glass microsphere lasers

“…To fabricate the microspheres, we used a Bi-doped germanate glass with the compositions (mol%): 70GeO 2 was mixed thoroughly in an agate mortar and melted in a covered corundum crucible at 1350°C for 1 h. The bulk glass samples were fabricated using the melting-quenching method. The glass samples were cut and polished for measurements.…”

“…In recent decades, gain glass materials with ultrabroadband emission have been intensely investigated due to their various invaluable applications, such as broadband fiber amplifiers and tunable fiber lasers [1,2]. Nevertheless, most investigations in relation to luminescent glasses are confined to materials with dopants of a range of rare-earth ions, such as Yb 3 , Er 3 , Tm 3 , and Ho 3 .…”