Research Seminar of Prof. Deng Renren from Zhejiang University

Lecture Time: 14:30 on 6th April, 2017

Lecture Room: C501 of Science and Innovation Building

Lecture Title: Photon Management of Lanthanide-doped Nanocrystals for Energy Conversion and Imaging Applications

Deng Renren

Zhejiang University

Abstract

Lanthanide-doped materials are a group of materials which contain lanthanide dopants (mostly trivalent lanthanide ions) in hosts of solid crystal or glass. The lanthanide-doped materials have been investigated for many years with regard to their diverse applications ranging from high pulse lasers, solar cells to optical electrodes. The unique optical properties of these materials have rendered their potential usefulness in biological applications such as biolabeling. Driven by this motivation, intense studies have recently been devoted to the development of novel nano-sized (around 1-100 nm in diameter) lanthanide-doped materials which were compliable to biological systems. So far, the advances in nano-synthesis have enabled the preparation of numerous types of lanthanide-doped nanocrystals with tunable size, morphology and luminescence properties. However, difficulties encountered in the fabrication of practically-useable lanthanide-doped nanocrystals are still inextricable. One of the most challenging issues is how to give these nanocrystals rational functionality without losing their luminescence properties.
My research involves the design, fabrication and mechanical studies of lanthanide upconvesion nanocrystals with either unique crystal lattice structures or novel core-shell heterogeneous structures. I am now trying to understand the energy transfer through lanthanide-doped nanoparticles for potential applications such as 3D displays, and solar energy conversion.