Photonics and Optoelectronics with Functional Nanomaterials

Dear Colleagues,

Our Special Issue with emphasis on Photonics and Optoelectronics aims at bringing together scholars contributing to advanced research on nanomaterials with these application potentials in mind. It is about content impactful for instance in the domains of light generation and detection, energy harvesting, information technologies, as well as modern optics-oriented concepts in physics. Innovative and original articles and reviews targeting ongoing challenges in photonics- and optoelectronics-related research are sought.

Because nanomaterials research is highly multidisciplinary and ‘multidimensional’ in terms of scope and application potentials, there are no clear lines segregating topics of relevance here, also regarding addressed applications in aforementioned fields. As collaborating guest editors in the sphere of functional nanomaterials sciences, we encourage submission of works both with international cooperation background as well as individual authors. The topic lends itself to bridging academia and industry, as nanomaterials have long successfully entered the stage of industrial applications, such as sensing or photovoltaics, display or communication technologies, as well as optics for different frequency bands, to name but a few.

For instance, the prize-worthy colloidal quantum dots are being utilized as high-brightness high-color-purity luminescent nanostructures, or as sensitive, tailorable light-absorbing structures, or room-temperature quantum emitters. Similarly, the revisited class of 2D materials in the monolayer or heterostructure regime offers novel pathways to efficient and miniaturized optoelectronic nanodevices, also mechanically flexible ones. Synthesis of quantum materials and the discovery of novel physical properties have been nowadays substantially boosted by methods of artificial intelligence, such as machine learning. Astonishingly, nanomaterials might also become instrumental elements in pieces of hardware for future information processing devices, such as neuromorphic computers. Mass producibility and device integration of nanostructures, including artificial quantum islands, needle-like or wire-like waveguides, atomically smooth ribbons or tubes of carbon, etc., have become common topics.

Whether the target being quantum or photonic computers, or optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes, detectors and lasers in the infrared or visible spectral region, works reflecting recent advances in this overarching field may reach a wide audience of interested readers here.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• AI-assisted nanomaterials research;
• Metamaterials;
• Nanophotonics;
• Neuromorphic computation;
• Nonlinear optics;
• Light control and manipulation;
• Optoelectronic nanomaterials;
• Photovoltaics and photodetection;
• Quantum materials;
• Terahertz functional devices;
• 3D nanoprinting.

Dr. Arash Rahimi-Iman
Dr. Weien Lai
Dr. Weiguang Kong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• nanophotonics
• optoelectronic nanomaterials
• quantum materials
• photovoltaics and photodetection
• light control and manipulation
• metamaterials
• AI-assisted nanomaterials research
• 3D nanoprinting materials
• nanomaterials for computation
• nonlinear optical properties
• materials engineering
• materials physics
• nanomaterials
• quantum materials

Title: Adiabatic rapid passage for deterministic photon emission in colloidal quantum dots with spectral diffusion
Authors: Yongzheng Ye, Wei Fang
Affiliation: Zhejiang University
Abstract: Resonant Pi pulse excitation is a coherent pumping technique for two-level systems that achieves complete population inversion. Widely used in systems like epitaxial-grown quantum dots to prepare deterministic single-photon sources, this technique requires stable emission peaks to maintain resonant conditions. However, colloidal quantum dots exhibit significant spectral diffusion even at low temperatures, rendering Pi pulse excitation ineffective. This paper explores adiabatic rapid passage (ARP) as an alternative, which is less sensitive to emission peak position and broadening. Numerical simulations based on observed spectral diffusion data show that ARP can achieve population inversion in colloidal quantum dots with certain chirped laser pulses and sufficient power. This study paves the way for deterministic single-photon sources using colloidal quantum dots.