Recent Progress in Chalcogenide Light-Emitting Diodes

Jiaming Fan

Arizona College of Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, 300400, China

Keywords: Perovskite, Light-Emitting Diode, Preparation, Color Purification.

Abstract: Light Emitting Diode (LED), as an efficient light energy conversion device, has been widely used in lighting,

display, and other fields. This paper will introduce the basic structure of LEDs, analyze their long development,

and the great role they can play in different fields. This paper will also show the reader the current use of

LEDs in the field of anti-counterfeiting and optics, as well as the mature use of large-area preparation. At the

end of this paper, it will also look forward to the future and discuss, analyze the future of China in different

areas of more in-depth research. With the progress of the times, the application of light-emitting diodes

extends to a variety of fields, from lower luminous flux indicators to display screens, and then from outdoor

displays to medium luminous flux power signal lamps and white light sources for special lighting, and finally

develops to high luminous flux general illumination light sources.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the research and development of new

light-emitting materials and their functional devices

have demonstrated broad application prospects.

Global R&D funding for semiconductor materials

increased by 12.5% year-on-year in 2023, further

boosting the progress of related technologies. With

the continuous investment in basic research on

optoelectronic materials worldwide, especially the

chalcogenide light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs), they

have become the key breakthrough direction for next-

generation display technology due to their unique

carrier transport properties and solution-processable

advantages.

China's semiconductor field is currently booming,

with significant breakthroughs in both optical anti-

counterfeiting and display. At the same time,

luminescence efficiency and stability, as well as pure

red light and green light outside the quantum field,

can be significant improvements. The improvement

in luminous efficiency also leads to higher energy

efficiency and lower energy consumption. Large-area

preparation also makes the luminescence field more

commercialization prospects.

This paper will analyze the current advantages

and shortcomings in the field of chalcogenide light-

emitting diodes in China, and by analyzing the latest

https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1485-6381

research progress of other scholars, it aims to explore

the future development direction of China's light-

emitting field.

2 LIGHT EMITTING DIODE

STRUCTURE

Light-emitting diode is a typical semiconductor

device that can convert electrical energy into light

energy. Its basic structure includes a chip, packaging

materials, leads, and a housing. Its working principle

is based on the fact that photons will be generated and

energy will be released when the electrons and holes

of the PN junction are combined.

The chip is the core part of the LED, composed of

multiple layers of different semiconductor materials,

where a PN junction is formed between the N-type

layer and the P-type layer. When a positive voltage is

applied to the PN junction, electrons jump from the

N-type layer to the P-type layer, combining with

holes to produce photons, which emit light. In order

to improve the luminous efficiency and stability,

modern LED chips usually use the double

heterojunction (DH) structure, which can effectively

limit the carriers and light waves, thus improving the

luminous efficiency.

482

Fan, J.

Recent Progress in Chalcogenide Light-Emitting Diodes.

DOI: 10.5220/0013827900004708

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy (IAMPA 2025), pages 482-486

ISBN: 978-989-758-774-0

Encapsulation materials are used to fix and protect

the chip, and commonly used encapsulation materials

include epoxy resin, silicone, and polystyrene. These

materials need to have good thermal conductivity,

UV resistance, and moisture resistance to ensure the

normal operation of the LED.

The lead wire connects the chip to the external

circuit and plays the role of current conduction. Lead

wires are generally made of metal materials, such as

gold or copper. The soldering quality of the lead wires

has an important impact on the performance and life

of the LEDs, and it is necessary to ensure a good

connection to reduce the contact resistance and

thermal resistance.

The shell not only protects the internal structure,

but also plays the role of a light guide and heat

dissipation. The design of the housing can affect the

distribution and direction of light. Some housings are

designed in the shape of a convex lens to concentrate

the light.

3 MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS

3.1 Mature Applications in Optical

Anti-Counterfeiting

Optical anti-counterfeiting technology is an

important branch of modern anti-counterfeiting

technology, which mainly realizes anti-counterfeiting

marking by using the optical properties of materials.

Chalcogenide materials have been widely studied in

the field of optical anti-counterfeiting due to their

excellent optical properties, and such materials can be

tuned in their composition and structure to achieve

broad spectral tuning in the ultraviolet to near-

infrared region. Zhou et al. (2024) successfully

synthesized CsPbX3 halide quantum dots (PeQDs) in

an anionic metal-organic framework (MOF). Thanks

to the porous nature of MOF, the quantum dots were

confined by micropores during the synthesis process,

which ensured their dimensional homogeneity and

made the luminescence more stable and efficient.

3.2 Prospects for Emission Display

Because of its excellent photoelectric properties,

chalcogenide material has become a research hotspot

in the field of emissive display, especially in blue

light-emitting diodes (LED) shows great potential.

For blue light-emitting diodes, Liu et al. (2024)

pointed out that chalcogenide materials are regarded

as a new generation of light-emitting materials

because of their excellent photoelectric properties.

The luminescence wavelength of chalcogenide

materials can be controlled by component

engineering and dimensional engineering, in which

quasi-two-dimensional chalcogenide materials show

great potential in realizing high-efficiency blue light

emission due to their excellent thin film surface

morphology and multilayered quantum well structure.

For transparent light-emitting diodes (TLEDs),

transparent display is one of the development

directions of future displays, and has great potential

for application in smart windows, wearable

electronics, virtual reality technology, touch screens,

and other fields (Li et al., 2023). With the emergence

of new light-emitting materials such as organic,

quantum dots, chalcogenide, etc., the brightness,

efficiency, and stability of light-emitting diodes are

developing rapidly.

3.3 Compound Application

Light-emitting diodes currently play a great role in

two important fields: military and agriculture. In the

military, light-emitting diodes can be used as a source

of illumination. Zhou et al. (2024) found in practice

that due to the lack of infrared radiation in LED light

sources, they are easy to conceal. In the field under

difficult conditions, it has the advantages of vibration

resistance, suitable for battery power supply, solid

structure, and easy to carry, and will be in the special

lighting light source will have greater development,

which will directly help the army at night with light.

Secondly, in the field of agriculture, light-emitting

diodes can be used for greenhouse supplemental light.

Chen et al. (2019) found that light is one of the most

important environmental factors for plant growth and

development by comparing it with other categories,

and it has a regulatory effect on the growth and

development of plants, morphogenesis,

photosynthesis, material metabolism, and gene

expression, etc. The electrical energy conversion

efficiency of LED can be up to 80%-90%, which is

much higher than that of incandescent lamps and

Fluorescent lamps. Under the same brightness, LED

power consumption is only 1/10 of incandescent

lamps, and energy energy-saving effect is outstanding.

At the same time, LED does not contain mercury, lead,

and other toxic substances, no risk of environmental

pollution after disposal. While fluorescent lamps

contain mercury, improper handling may jeopardize

the ecology. Therefore, greenhouse fill light is an

important way to achieve high-quality and high-yield

plants.

Recent Progress in Chalcogenide Light-Emitting Diodes

483

4 DOUBLE BREAKTHROUGH IN

EFFICIENCY AND STABILITY

4.1 Green Light External Quantum

Efficiency (EQE)

Green light exo-quantum, as the most mature

application area of light-emitting diodes, has been

intensively investigated nowadays. Lu et al. (2024)

proposed a NaBr-assisted crystallization method,

which can effectively regulate the top-down

crystallization process of Q-2D chalcogenide films

and precisely regulate the phase distribution of Q-2D

chalcogenide films in vertical space. Passivating

surface bromine vacancy defects and suppressing

non-radiative complexation is facilitated by the

strong interaction between Na+ and PbBr64-. The

device's transport capabilities are effectively

improved by this. Finally, the EQE of the device

reaches 26.5%, and the efficiency reaches 19.2%

even when the effective light-emitting area of the

device is enlarged by more than 50 times. At an initial

brightness of 100 cd m-2, the small-area and large-

area devices achieve a T50 of 612 h and 112 h,

respectively.

4.2 Suppression of Efficiency Roll-Off

in Pure Red Q-2D PeLEDs

The efficiency roll-off suppression of pure red Q-2D

PeLEDs is one of the key challenges to enhance their

performance. Lu et al. (2024) improved the carrier

density of the composite centers by adjusting the

thickness of the quantum wells and the Eb of the Q-

2D chalcogenide films using p-F-PEA and PBA with

different carbon chain lengths. In addition, the defects,

such as halogen vacancies in the chalcogenides, can

be passivated by introducing TOPO to enhance the

stability of the materials. Ultimately, highly efficient

and stable pure red Q-2D PeLEDs were obtained, and

the optimized devices achieved a peak external

quantum efficiency of 19.78% and a T50 of 241.2

hours. When the effective area is enlarged by a factor

of 900, the efficiency remains high at 14.82%,

representing one of the best performances of pure red

Q-2D PeLEDs to date.

4.3 Significant Improvement in

Luminescence Performance

Liu & Bian (2024) found from experimental results

that FA + doping enables CsPbBr 3 chalcogenide

quantum dots to convert electrical energy into light

energy more efficiently and contributes to the

improvement of the stability and optical properties of

chalcogenide quantum dots. This provides an

effective way to enhance the white light emission

performance of fully inorganic chalcogenide

quantum dots. This class of quantum dots has good

application prospects in fluorescence conversion

materials for white light LD emitting layers, which

can not only significantly extend the service life of

the devices, but also realize higher energy utilization

efficiency and reduce energy consumption.

5 COLOR PURIFICATION AND

DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY

INNOVATION

Full-color active displays can be achieved by

combining blue active light-emitting diodes with

inkjet-printed red and green quantum dots. Blue

subpixels and red and green subpixel quantum dots

are both excitation sources in this structure, using

active matrix blue OLEDs (AM-BOLEDs). He et al.

(2025) obtained homogeneous green and red quantum

dots with a thickness of micrometers using polymer-

based quantum dot inks. The efficiency of converting

blue to green and red light can be adjusted by

changing the thickness of the quantum dot layer. This

structure led to the successful manufacture of a 6.6-

inch full-color, large-size quantum dot display with a

color gamut of 95% of the BT.2020 standard. The use

of quantum dots in display technology can be

expanded by designing a full-color display rationally

with blue active light-emitting diodes, as

demonstrated by these results.

Liu & Bian (2024) concluded that the stability of

quasi-two-dimensional devices is better than that of

three-dimensional devices, mainly due to the

introduction of organic macrocations that somewhat

insulate the water oxygen in the air. A reasonable

selection of organic cations can improve the stability

of the devices, but their effect is limited. Meanwhile,

the factors affecting the stability of quasi-two-

dimensional blue light devices are diverse.

6 PROGRESS IN LARGE-AREA

PREPARATION AND

INDUSTRIALIZATION

To fabricate high-performance large-area PeLEDs

using the blade coating method, Chen et al. (2025)

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484

proposed a strategy to improve the uniformity and

crystalline quality of perovskite nanopolycrystalline

films. The method increases the steric hindrance of

solutes in the solution of the encapsulated precursor,

which slows down the crystallization rate and

improves the crystal quality. Based on these methods,

an EQE of 25.91% was achieved for small area green

PeLEDs, which marks the highest efficiency

currently available for the production of pack-crystal

green PeLEDs using the blade coating method. In

addition, the method successfully prepares larger area

photoluminescent films (9 cm × 9 cm) and larger area

PeLEDs (5 cm × 7 cm) showing excellent brightness

and uniformity. This research result is a key step

toward the large-scale commercial application of

encapsulated crystalline luminescent films.

Wang et al. (2024) in the YIP research group used

organotrichlorosilane immersion of aluminum halide

films to fill defects and modulate spectra. By varying

the immersion time, aluminum gallium halide films

with different luminescence peaks were obtained, and

higher device efficiencies were achieved.

7 OUTLOOK

The development of light-emitting diodes is still

insufficient. Although it is more economical to use in

the long run, the manufacturing cost of LED is

significantly higher than that of traditional light

sources. At the same time, LED chip manufacturing

relies on rare earth elements; its mining and

processing may cause resource depletion and

environmental pollution. LED after the disposal of

the recycling system is not yet perfect, and electronic

components, if not handled properly, may still

produce pollution. Figure 1 gives the growth trend of

the external quantum efficiency of chalcogenide

diodes, although the current light-emitting diodes

have great potential for development, there are still a

variety of defects exist, and the excited state

radiation-free compounding associated with the

defects has been the main factor limiting the

luminescence efficiency of chalcogenide films and

devices (Li et al., 2023). In addition, organic light-

emitting diodes (OLEDs) are very promising in the

field of flat panel displays and solid-state lighting due

to their unique advantages such as self-luminescence,

faceted light source, fast response time, wide viewing

angle, and thickness, etc. Jeonghun et al. mentioned

in their article that OLEDs have a promising future

for a wide range of applications in lighting, and that

due to the growth of lighting demand for existing

consumption, solid-state lighting has the potential to

provide better power efficiency than conventional

light sources. Power efficiency of conventional light

sources. Tu (2022) stated that device lighting has

become a leading technology in the solid state

lighting market, attracting widespread attention from

manufacturers, product designers, and end users. The

devices have entered the high-end lighting market,

such as illuminated artwork, automotive taillights,

aerospace lighting, high-end architectural lighting,

and other lighting applications.

Figure 1: Trend of growth of external quantum efficiency

(Photo/Picture credit: Original).

8 CONCLUSION

The breakthroughs in efficiency, stability, and

application scenarios of chalcogenide light-emitting

diodes (PeLEDs) have propelled them from the

laboratory to industrialization. With the progress of

material design, process optimization, and

environmental protection technology, PeLEDs are

expected to achieve large-scale applications in ultra-

high-definition display, flexible electronics,

biomedicine, and other fields, and become the core

pillar of the next generation of optoelectronic

technology. New light-emitting materials and their

development of innovative devices with attractive

prospects for development, people's attention to the

development of new materials is increasing day by

day, the government of the development of

semiconductor materials to provide economic and

policy support for the future with the deepening of the

understanding of the material and the advancement of

process technology is expected to further improve the

efficiency and stability of the device, and promote its

industrialization. Shortly, chalcogenide LED will

become a new generation of display and lighting

competitor with its excellent performance and low

cost, and occupy an important position in a variety of

fields in the future, which will directly promote the

accelerated development of China's agriculture,

military industry, and other industries.

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