NANOMATERIALS FOR OPTOELECTRONICS: AN OVERVIEW

Optoelectronics focuses on light-emitting and light-detecting devices and investigation of the materials used for their fabrication. Usually, the light-emitting devices are lamps, LEDs, laser diodes and gain medium lasers, while the light-detecting devices are represented by photodiodes, photovoltaic solar cells, photoresistors, phototransistors, etc. The above field also covers the studies of emission of materials under different stimuli and interaction of light with different types of materials, mostly semiconductors and metal nanostructures. A technological progress in the materials science has instigated development of nanomaterials and optoelectronic devices on their basis. They can be divided into two-dimensional (2D) quantum wells, films or sheets, 1D nanowires and 0D quantum dots. 2D graphene-like layered materials, quantum dots and metal nanoparticles for optoelectronic applications are the most investigated. As a matter of fact, a global scientific trend associated with the nanomaterials is currently transforming our technologies and industry and represents the most ambitious course of the present and future optoelectronics.