A global team of experts from academia and industry has joined forces in a landmark ‘Consensus Statement’ on next-generation photodetectors based on emerging light-responsive materials, which could accelerate innovative applications across healthcare, smart homes, agriculture, and manufacturing.
Professor Vincenzo Pecunia, head of the Sustainable Optoelectronics Research Group, has led this global initiative culminating in the publication of a ‘Consensus Statement’ in Nature Photonics. Featured on the journal’s cover, the paper provides a unified framework for characterizing, reporting, and benchmarking emerging light-sensing technologies. These guidelines could catalyze the adoption of such sensors across a wide range of applications, enhancing quality of life, productivity, and sustainability.
Light sensors, also known as photodetectors, are devices that convert light into electrical signals. They are at the heart of countless smart devices and represent a global market valued at over $30 billion, reflecting both their ubiquity and economic significance. Emerging photodetectors – including those based on organic semiconductors, perovskites, quantum dots, and two-dimensional materials – could take this field even further by enabling ultrathin, flexible, stretchable, and lightweight sensors. These next-generation photodetectors promise lower costs, enhanced performance, and unique functionalities, paving the way for applications that were previously impossible.
Rapid advances in materials and device architectures, however, have outpaced the research community’s ability to consistently measure and compare performance – particularly as new phenomena and applications emerge thanks to the unique properties of these emerging technologies. “The field has been held back by inconsistent reporting and characterization practices,” says Professor Pecunia, lead author of the ‘Consensus Statement’. “Without standardized methods, it’s difficult to know which technologies truly represent breakthroughs, and industry struggles to identify the ones that are ready to deliver real-world impact. Another challenge is that research has often focused on narrowly optimizing a single performance metric, rather than taking the holistic approach needed to make these devices valuable for real-world applications.”
To tackle these challenges, Professor Pecunia brought together a global team of 53 experts from 43 universities and research institutes, along with 11 leading companies – including Panasonic, Vishay, OmniVision, Exosens, and Thorlabs – spanning 16 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Together, they distilled best practices in light sensor characterization that incorporate diverse perspectives, cutting-edge research, and real-world industry needs.
The resulting ‘Consensus Statement’ establishes clear guidelines for evaluating key performance metrics – covering sensitivity, low-light performance, speed, stability, and more – and provides detailed checklists and experimental schematics to support reproducibility and meaningful benchmarking. “The vision of these guidelines is to help researchers and industry identify the true cutting edge as these technologies continue to develop, accelerating the translation of emerging photodetector technologies into everyday devices,” Pecunia explains.
Prof. Pecunia’s leadership in this initiative builds on more than 15 years of research experience in the field, with pioneering work in photodetectors made from printable materials such as organic and perovskite semiconductors. His focus has been on developing materials and device solutions that combine high-performance light sensing with low-cost fabrication methods, while advancing their sensitivity and ability to detect light in very narrow spectral windows.
In his Sustainable Optoelectronics Research Group, Prof. Pecunia is advancing light sensor technology for applications ranging from smart agriculture to environmental monitoring and industrial safety. By leveraging the best practices from the ‘Consensus Statement’, he aims to accelerate efforts to bring these technologies to fruition in real-world applications.