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Accelerated response speed of quantum-dot light-emitting diodes by hole-trap-induced excitation memory

Nature Electronics volume 8, pages 331–342 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fast-response electroluminescent devices are crucial for optoelectronic applications that involve high-speed operations. Quantum-dot light-emitting diodes are solution-processed electroluminescent devices with high efficiencies and stabilities, and they are of potential use in such applications. However, their response speed is typically limited by slow charge injection and transport across the organic hole-transport layers. We show that the transient electroluminescent responses of quantum-dot light-emitting diodes are influenced by their excitation history in pulsed operations. As the pulse interval decreases, this results in an increased response speed and the emergence of another fast-response electroluminescent channel, indicating the presence of excitation-memory effects. We show that these dynamics are due to deep-level hole traps in the organic hole-transport layers with fast charge-trapping and slow charge-detrapping characteristics. We develop a low-capacitance micro-quantum-dot light-emitting diode that exploits the excitation-memory-induced fast-response channel. The device, which has a −3 dB bandwidth of up to 19 MHz, exhibits an electroluminescent modulation frequency of 100 MHz and data-transmission rates of up to 120 Mbps with sub-picojoule energy consumption.

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Fig. 1: Excitation-history-dependent trEL of the QLED.
Fig. 2: Excitation-memory effects of the QLED.
Fig. 3: Deep-level hole traps in the HTL responsible for excitation-memory effects.
Fig. 4: Trap-modulated charge dynamics revealed by the time-dependent simulation.
Fig. 5: Schematic diagrams of trEL dynamics of a QLED under pulsed excitations in three frequency regimes.
Fig. 6: High-frequency modulation and data-transmission characteristics of the μ-QLED.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Di (Zhejiang University, China) for valuable advice on the manuscript. We thank X. Lin and Z. Song (Zhejiang University, China) for their assistance with the temperature-dependent measurements. We thank H. Zhai (SIGLENT Technologies, China) for assistance with the modulation bandwidth measurements. We thank the Chemistry Instrumentation Center at Zhejiang University for their technical support. We also thank N. C. Greenham (University of Cambridge, UK) and A. Rao (University of Cambridge, UK) for discussion and support on this work. Y.J. acknowledges financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFB3606503) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U23A2092). Y.D. acknowledges financial support from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2021M702800) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (UKRI underwritten, Grant No. EP/Y02771X/1). J.W. and A.R. acknowledge financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFA1401100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52472148 and 52202165).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xiuyuan Lu, Yunzhou Deng.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, Key Laboratory of Excited-State Materials of Zhejiang Province, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Xiuyuan Lu, Siyu He, Xitong Zhu, Desui Chen & Yizheng Jin

  2. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Yunzhou Deng, Szymon J. Zelewski & Richard H. Friend

  3. Department of Experimental Physics, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland

    Szymon J. Zelewski

  4. Electrical Engineering Division, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Hao Wang & Richard V. Penty

  5. Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Aobo Ren, Xiangyu Zhou & Jiang Wu

  6. State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

    Jiang Wu

  7. School of Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Information, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Xiang Li

  8. State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Jiejun Zeng & Xingliang Dai

  9. School of Medical Imaging, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China

    Qibin Shen

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Contributions

Y.D. and Y.J. conceived the idea and supervised the work. X. Lu fabricated the QLEDs and the PLEDs, performed the spectral and electrical characterizations, and conducted the trEL measurements and the data-transmission measurements. Y.D. performed the time-dependent simulations, developed the architecture of the μ-QLED and guided the data analysis. X.D. and Q.S. assisted in the development of the trEL spectroscopy for the millimetre-sized QLEDs and provided advice on the measurements. X. Lu and Y.D. modified the TCSPC system used to characterize the μ-QLED. S.J.Z. conducted the PDS measurements and assisted in data analysis. S.H., D.C. and X. Zhu assisted in the synthesis of the electron-transport materials and the fabrication of the QLEDs. X. Zhu performed the UPS measurements. H.W. assisted with the data-transmission measurements and provided considerable advice on analysing the results under the supervision of R.V.P. A.R., X. Zhou and J.W. assisted with setting up the data-transmission measurements and provided considerable advice on the measurements. X. Li assisted with processing data from the data-transmission measurements. J.Z. fabricated the PeLEDs. R.H.F. provided major revisions on the experimental design and data analysis. Y.D. and Y.J. supervised the data analysis and co-wrote the first draft. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yunzhou Deng or Yizheng Jin.

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Nature Electronics thanks Hongyan Fu and Kunping Guo for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Notes 1 and 2, Figs. 1–17, and Tables 1 and 2.

Supplementary Video 1 (download MP4 )

Charge dynamics of QLEDs under long-pulse operations.

Supplementary Video 2 (download MP4 )

Charge dynamics of QLEDs under short-pulse operations.

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Lu, X., Deng, Y., He, S. et al. Accelerated response speed of quantum-dot light-emitting diodes by hole-trap-induced excitation memory. Nat Electron 8, 331–342 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01350-0

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