A research team led by Professor LIU Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry at NUS in collaboration with Professor Liangliang LIANG from Xiamen University, China has reported a major advancement in optical materials science. They have developed a new class of lanthanide-doped nanomaterials that exhibit extraordinarily high optical nonlinearity, exceeding a magnitude of 500. This achievement establishes a new global benchmark for photon avalanche nanophotonics. Their results were published in the journal Nature.
Professor Liu remarked, “By combining photon avalanche effects with precise nanomaterials design, we are redefining the boundaries of nonlinear optics. This work lays the foundation for a new generation of light-based technologies that are faster, more compact, and more sensitive than ever before.” Read the full article here.
Schematic illustration of the photon avalanche mechanism in lanthanide-doped nanocrystals. The process involves ground-state absorption (GSA), followed by excited-state absorption (ESA) and cross-relaxation (CR). A positive feedback loop between ESA and CR leads to an exponential buildup of excited-state population and results in highly nonlinear emission output.
