FSU researchers develop new method to produce next-gen LED

A Florida State University research team has developed a method to create red-emitting LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, with next-generation materials.

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Biwu Ma and other FSU researchers published their work in the scientific journal Advanced Materials.

Ma and his team engineered a small molecular change to address the low conductivity of zero-dimensional (0D) organic metal halide hybrids — compounds made of metal and halogen — and produced a new material that emits highly efficient red light.

When LEDs use this hybrid material as an emitting layer, it has an external quantum efficiency of 5%. Quantum efficiency is how effectively devices convert the energy of electrons into photons, ultimately creating a visible light. Other organic LEDs have rates at about 20%, but the FSU team’s work is among the best value reported to date for electroluminescent devices based on this class of hybrid materials.

Electrically driven LEDs, or electroluminescent devices, have a wide range of applications, from full-color displays to solid-state lighting. Scientists and engineers have developed various types over the past few decades, including LEDs based on inorganic semiconductors, organic LEDs (OLEDs), quantum dot-based LEDs (QDLEDs), and more recently, LEDs based on metal halide perovskites (PeLEDs).