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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Light sources and detectors are key components of countless technological devices on the market today. For instance, light emitting diodes (LEDs) are often used as a source of light in displays and other technologies, while photodiodes are used to detect light in sensors, imaging and fiber optic communication tools.
[...] Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden, Shenzhen University and several other universities in China have recently fabricated an efficient diode capable of both emitting and detecting light. This new device, presented in a paper published in Nature Electronics, was built using a solution-processed perovskite material.
[...] The perovskite material that Gao, Bao and their colleagues used to build their diode has several unique photoelectrical properties. In addition to a high photoluminescence quantum efficiency (PLQE), which is ideal for the development of high-performance LEDs, the material has a high absorption coefficient, enabling photodetection.
The material also exhibits a high carrier mobility and can thus be used to fabricate films of a variety of thicknesses. Finally, the researchers observed a large overlap between the perovskite's absorption and photoluminescence spectra. This means that the material can also absorb the light emitted by itself.
Combined, all of these properties enable the creation of highly performing LEDs and photodetectors, based on the same planar junction structure. In other words, these properties are what ultimately allowed Gao, Bao and their colleagues to create a single device that can both emit and detect light.
[...] "We now plan to further improve the device's response speed and operation lifetime and study the detection performance of visible light perovskite LED to extend the application to visible light range," Bao said.
Wikipedia's entry for Perovskite.
More information: Chunxiong Bao et al. Bidirectional optical signal transmission between two identical devices using perovskite diodes, Nature Electronics (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-020-0382-3
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Monday April 13 2020, @09:18PM (3 children)
First gut reaction: telescreen! Big Brother watches you. The panel is made of these LEDs that can detect light. Problem is it seems that a lens would be needed to focus light of the outer party members to be observed. And TVs could already be very cheaply be equipped with tiny cameras in the bezel.
Other applications:
Electric eye beam. But bidirectional. At each side of a doorway are two of these devices emitting different color light modulated differently. The opposite device detects the other door frame's beam.
Bi-directional communication over a single optical fiber. But would it halve to be half duplex? Can this LED intelligibly read the other side's bits while it is stuck on transmit emitting bits? (Most people cannot do this.)
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday April 13 2020, @09:37PM (1 child)
I think it's more about manufacturing where you only need a single component instead of two. A size thing.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:06PM
If it's a size thing, then 'smaller is better' seems unintuative.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Tuesday April 14 2020, @03:10AM
How about a wireless phone charger that's an LCD screen. You place the phone face down, and the phone screen and charger surface optically communicate to sync the phone very quickly with thousands of serial channels...