The Department of Chemical Engineering is pleased to welcome Professor Xiwen Gong, who will discuss her research in emerging low-dimensional quantum emitters for future light sources, including her recent efforts in and vision for developing quantum-dots-polymer composites for wearable display and artificial photonic skin.
All graduate Chemical Engineering students will receive an Outlook calendar event with webinar access details.
Everyone is welcome – If you are not a graduate Chemical Engineering student, contact the Manager of Graduate Studies for the access information you need to join the webinar.
Abstract
From campfire and incandescent bulb, to light-emitting diodes (LED), the use of light partially defined and shaped humanity. Meanwhile, the function of light has been continuously evolving: from lighting to display, phototherapy, health monitoring, bioimaging, and much more. Future light sources need to meet the new requirements: sharper, brighter, broader-spectrum, wearable, more efficient and cost-effective. Low-dimensional semiconductors are promising light emitters for future electronics. Their strong quantum confinement effect leads to the efficient radiative recombination process.
In this talk, Professor Xiwen Gong will focus on two classes of emerging low-dimensional quantum emitters: 1) colloidal quantum dots (QDs), and 2) two-dimensional (2D) metal halide perovskites. First, she will introduce her work on overcoming the great challenge in QD LEDs: the tradeoff between surface passivation and electrical transport. She will highlight her group’s initiatives in marrying up QDs with conductive perovskite matrix, by constructing a hetero-epitaxial junction between them. The resulting composites – quantum-dot-in-perovskite – show superb photophysics properties benefiting from the interactions between the QD and perovskite. She will then briefly discuss the previously overlooked role of electron–phonon interactions in the photoluminescence efficiency of 2D perovskites. She will show their strategy in reducing such interaction – by improving the crystal rigidity – to achieve bright and sharp emission in 2D perovskites. In the end, she will discuss their recent efforts and vision in developing quantum-dots-polymer composites for wearable display and artificial photonic skin.
Biographical sketch
Xiwen Gong is an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering and, by courtesy, an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Macromolecular Science & Engineering, and Applied Physics, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Professor Gong focuses on developing the next generation of soft electronic materials and devices by utilizing a transdisciplinary approach that unites physics, chemistry, and engineering (Gong Research Group). Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Professor Gong worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Professor Zhenan Bao at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University. At Stanford, Professor Gong focused on developing the soft and stretchable semiconductors and devices for wearable electronics (inSPIREd Talk). In 2018, she gained her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering with Professor Edward Sargent at the University of Toronto. During her PhD, Professor Gong focused on the design of novel materials for solar energy harvesting, light emitting, and sensing. She received the Extraordinary Potential Prize and the “Rising Stars in EECS 2017” (Stanford University). In 2018, Professor Gong was selected as one of the fourteen Schmidt Science Fellows, inaugural.