Unravelling radiative energy transfer in solid-state lighting

Today, a wide variety of organic and inorganic luminescent materials (e.g., phosphors, quantum dots, etc.) are being used for lighting and new materials (e.g., graphene, perovskite, etc.) are currently under investigation. However, the understanding of radiative energy transfer is limited, even though it is critical to understand and improve the performance levels of solid-state lighting devices. In this study, we derived a matrix approach that includes absorption, reabsorption, inter-absorption and their iterative and combinatorial interactions for one and multiple types of fluorophores, which is simplified to an analytical matrix. This mathematical approach gives results that agree well with the measured spectral and efficiency characteristics of color-conversion light-emitting diodes. Moreover, it also provides a deep physical insight by uncovering the entire radiative interactions and their contribution to the output optical spectrum. The model is universal and applicable for all kinds of fluorophores. Published by AIP Publishing.