Far-ultraviolet plane-emission handheld device based on hexagonal boron nitride

Many researchers have been trying to produce highly efficient solid-state devices with longer operating lives for the far-ultraviolet wavelength region as an alternative to conventional far-ultraviolet lamps. However, owing to the low efficiency of far-ultraviolet operation, research continues into the development of far-ultraviolet devices with sufficiently high performance(1,2). Here, the potential of hexagonal boron nitride as a far-ultraviolet fluorescent material is studied. Specifically, taking advantage of the highly luminous properties of hexagonal boron nitride(3), a far-ultraviolet plane-emission compact device equipped with a field-emission array(4) as an excitation source is fabricated, and its stable operation with an output power of 0.2 mW at 225 nm demonstrated. Because of its low current consumption in operation, the device can be driven by dry batteries. This convenient far-ultraviolet device is likely to prove extremely useful in photochemical and biotechnological applications such as photocatalysis, sterilization and modi. cation of chemical substances.