Room-Temperature Broadband Light Emission from Hybrid Lead Iodide Perovskite-Like Quantum Wells: Terahertz Spectroscopic Investigation of Metastable Defects

Evidence of defect-induced broadband light emission from 2D Ag-Bi double perovskites grown at liquid-liquid interfaces

Controlling the light emission spectra of low-dimensional hybrid organic-inorganic materials remains an important goal toward the implementation of these materials into real-world optoelectronic devices. In this study, we present evidence that the self-assembly of two-dimensional (2D) silver bismuth iodide double perovskite derivatives at the interface of aqueous and organic solutions leads to the formation of defects capable of modulating the light emission spectra of these materials. Through an analysis of the structural parameters used to explain the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of 2D perovskites, we show the light spectra emitted by (4-ammonium methyl)piperidinium (4-AMP) and (3-ammonium methyl)pyridinium (3-AMPy)-spaced AgBiI₈ double perovskites formed through interfacial solution-phase chemistry differ qualitatively and quantitatively from thin film samples. We use previous results to propose the differences observed in the PL spectra of different material morphologies stem from equatorial iodide vacancy formation driven by the kinetics of self-assembly at the liquid-liquid interface. These results show the generality of these chemical physics principles in the formation of defect sites in solution-processed semiconducting nanomaterials, which could help enable their broad use in optoelectronic technologies.

Strongly Anharmonic Octahedral Tilting in Two-Dimensional Hybrid Halide Perovskites

Recent investigations of two-dimensional (2D) hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskites (HHPs) indicate that their optical and electronic properties are dominated by strong coupling to thermal fluctuations. While the optical properties of 2D-HHPs have been extensively studied, a comprehensive understanding of electron-phonon interactions is limited because little is known about their structural dynamics. This is partially because the unit cells of 2D-HHPs contain many atoms. Therefore, the thermal fluctuations are complex and difficult to elucidate in detail. To overcome this challenge, we use polarization-orientation Raman spectroscopy and ab initio calculations to compare the structural dynamics of the prototypical 2D-HHPs [(BA)2PbI4 and (PhE)2PbI4] to their three-dimensional (3D) counterpart, MAPbI3. Comparison to the simpler, 3D MAPbI3 crystal shows clear similarities with the structural dynamics of (BA)2PbI4 and (PhE)2PbI4 across a wide temperature range. The analogy between the 3D and 2D crystals allows us to isolate the effect of the organic cation on the structural dynamics of the inorganic scaffold of the 2D-HHPs. Furthermore, using this approach, we uncover the mechanism of the order-disorder phase transition of (BA)2PbI4 (274 K) and show that it involves relaxation of octahedral tilting coupled to anharmonic thermal fluctuations. These anharmonic fluctuations are important because they induce charge carrier localization and affect the optoelectronic performance of these materials.

Kinetic Molecular Cationic Control of Defect-Induced Broadband Light Emission in 2D Hybrid Lead Iodide Perovskites

In this study, we examine the effects of changing organic cation concentrations on the efficiency and photophysical implications of exciton trapping in two-dimensional hybrid lead iodide self-assembled quantum wells (SAQWs). We show that increasing the concentration of alkyl and aryl ammonium cations causes the formation of SAQWs at a liquid-liquid interface to possess intense, broadband subgap photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies suggest that materials formed under these cation concentrations possess morphologies consistent with inhibited crystallization kinetics but exhibit qualitatively similar bulk chemical bonding to nonluminescent materials stabilized in the same structure from precursor solutions containing lower cation concentrations. Temperature- and power-dependent PL spectra suggest that the broadband subgap light emission stems from excitons self-trapped at defect sites, which we assign as edge-like, collective I vacancies using a simple model of the chemical equilibrium driving material self-assembly. These results suggest that changes to the availability of molecular cations can suitably control the light emission properties of self-assembled hybrid organic-inorganic materials in ways central to their applicability in lighting technologies.