The QDLight project set out to develop a method for fabrication of polymer optical fibers which are homogeneously doped with highly luminescent colloidal semiconductor quantum dots. In contrast with previous attempts to do this, where fiber manufacture involved the use of high temperatures which typically degrade the optical quality of the nanocrystals, we devloped a low-temperature process which yields high quality fibers but maintains the luminescence properties of the embedded particles. To do this, we had to modify both the synthetic protocols for nanoparticle synthesis and functionalization as well as the material formulations of the fibers.
The generated fibers have shown excellent stability under continuous illumination by a high power laser beam, with little degradation ofver several weeks. They and exhibit efficienct conversion of laser light coupled into the fiber to luminescence from the nanoparticles, with multiple potential applications in light conversion, lighting and energy harvesting, which are currently pursued.
