Visible light communication is a promising solution to the ever-increasing demand for data capacity in wireless communications. It provides greater bandwidth and a less crowded spectrum than do radio frequency and microwave technologies. However, the phosphors currently used with LED light sources cannot provide sufficient bandwidth for telecommunications signal modulation.

Boon Ooi, Osman Bakr, and colleagues, KAUST, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, developed a phosphor system that converts blue GaN laser diode light to white light. Green-emitting CsPbBr₃ perovskite nanocrystal phosphors, coupled with a conventional red-emitting nitride phosphor, produce white light with a modulation bandwidth of 491 MHz. This is about 40 times greater than for conventional phosphors, corresponding to a data transfer rate of as much as 2 gigabits/second.

One advantage of CsPbBr₃ is its relatively short phospholuminescent lifetime, which enables faster optical data transfer rates. Like other lead halide perovskites, CsPbBr₃ offers long-range charge transport, tunable emission in the visible spectrum, low cost, and ease of processability. According to the researchers, the next step is to develop encapsulation and packaging processes to ensure that lighting devices using this technology can operate reliably.

• Perovskite Nanocrystals as a Color Converter for Visible Light Communication,
  Ibrahim Dursun, Chao Shen, Manas R. Parida, Jun Pan, Smritakshi P. Sarmah, Davide Priante, Noktan Alyami, Jiakai Liu, Makhsud I. Saidaminov, Mohd S. Alias, Ahmed L. Abdelhady, Tien Khee Ng, Omar F. Mohammed, Boon S. Ooi, Osman M. Bakr,
  ACS Photonics 2016.
  DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.6b00187