Exciton energy recycling from ZnO defect levels: towards electrically driven hybrid quantum-dot white light-emitting-diodes

An electrically driven quantum-dot hybrid white light-emitting diode is fabricated via spin coating CdSe quantum dots onto a GaN/ZnO nanorod matrix. For the first time, quantum dots are excited by fluorescence resonance energy transfer from the carriers trapped at surface defect levels. The prototype device exhibits achromatic emission, with a chromaticity coordinate of (0.327, 0.330), and correlated color temperature similar to sunlight. © 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry.