Research Focus

At the LUMINOUS! Centre of Excellence for Semiconductor Lighting and Displays, our research advances cutting-edge materials, devices, and systems through a multidisciplinary approach spanning materials science, chemistry, device engineering, and applied photonics. By integrating expertise across colloidal nanomaterials, semiconductor epitaxy, and chip-scale device fabrication, LUMINOUS! addresses fundamental and applied challenges in energy-efficient lighting, advanced displays, and sustainable photonic technologies. 

1. High-Efficiency and High-Quality Colloidal Quantum Materials and Devices

LUMINOUS! is at the forefront of research in colloidal quantum dot (QD) materials, leveraging state-of-the-art synthesis, characterization, and device fabrication techniques. Our expertise spans the entire value chain, from material development to application-specific solutions for:

  • Color enrichment in displays
  • High-quality indoor lighting
  • Spectrally enhanced outdoor lighting
  • Flexible and bendable displays
  • Tunable LASERs

We specialize in synthesizing a wide range of colloidal QDs, including II-VI (e.g., CdSe, CdTe) and III-V (e.g., InP) material systems. Unlike epitaxially grown semiconductor QDs, which require expensive instrumentation, our colloidal QDs are synthesized using cost-effective setups, offering greater accessibility and scalability.

Our advanced manual and automated quantum dot synthesis setups allow us to explore the unique optical and electronic properties of these nanomaterials. Benchmarking and performance evaluations are conducted using cutting-edge tools such as:

  • Fluorescent lifetime imaging microscopy
  • Absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy
  • Quantum yield measurement
  • Transient absorption characterization

These capabilities enable us to push the boundaries of QD materials and devices, contributing to new-generation technologies across diverse application areas.

2. World-Class Semiconductor Epitaxy and Chip-Scale Device Fabrication

LUMINOUS! is also driving innovation in semiconductor epitaxy and LED technology, expanding its applications beyond traditional domains to include advanced and adaptive artificial lighting for:

  • Photodynamic therapy
  • Food storage lighting
  • Mercury-free clean water purification
  • Surgical theatre lighting

Each application demands tailored device architectures and designs to meet specific operational requirements for high performance and efficiency.

As information displays increasingly integrate into daily life, we envision a future featuring fully transparent, flexible, and high-color-purity displays. To support this evolution, we are pioneering next-generation energy-saving lighting and display solutions through proprietary manufacturing processes and device innovations.

LUMINOUS! boasts cutting-edge facilities for semiconductor epitaxy, device fabrication, and testing, including:

  • A showerhead III-N metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system for high-efficiency III-N epitaxy used in solid-state lighting and displays
  • A complete LED fabrication line, featuring capabilities such a LASER lift-off and laser scribing
  • Advanced material-to-device characterization tools, such as thickness mapping, sheet resistance measurement, photoluminescence and electroluminescence analysis, and absolute efficiency testing using integrating spheres

These comprehensive resources empower us to push for developing innovative optoelectronic devices and systems, enabling transformative advances in lighting, displays, and other applications.

LUMINOUS! has won and led multiple externally funded multi-school and multi-department research projects, involving researchers from the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering (EEE), School of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE), School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences (SPMS), the School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CCEB), and the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE). These collaborative efforts leverage complementary expertise across disciplines to tackle critical challenges in photonic materials, devices, and systems.

By combining expertise in colloidal quantum materials and epitaxial semiconductor technologies, LUMINOUS! continues to push the boundaries of science and technology, delivering sustainable, high-performance solutions for next-generation lighting, display, and photonic applications.