Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens as Color Converters for Visible-Light Communication

In this work, we report the application of the aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) as color converters for visible light communication (VLC). In the form of pure solid powder, the AIEgens studied herein have demonstrated blue-to-red full-color emissions, large −6 dB electrical modulation bandwidths up to 279 MHz (∼56× that of commercial phosphor), and most of them can achieve high data rates of 428–493 Mbps (up to ∼49× that of commercial phosphor) at a maximum bit error rate of 3.8 × 10–3 using on–off keying. Their data communication performances strongly suggest that AIEgens are very promising candidates as color converters for VLC applications, together with their unique AIE properties that will benefit usage in high concentration. Based on the comprehensive experimental results, we further propose some insights into improving data rate of the color converter in VLC: the data rate limit is influenced by modulation bandwidth and signal-noise ratio (SNR). We have experimentally proved that the −6 dB electrical modulation bandwidth fc can be estimated from the effective lifetime τ of the color converter with the theoretical prediction of fc=3/(2πτ) within experimental uncertainties, while theoretically derived that the SNR is proportional to its PL quantum efficiency. These observations and implications are very profound for exploring materials as color converters and improve the data transmission performance in VLC.