A-Site Cation Influence on the Structural and Optical Evolution of Ultrathin Lead Halide Perovskite Nanoplatelets

Imposing quantum confinement has the potential to significantly modulate both the structural and optical parameters of interest in many material systems. In this work, we investigate strongly confined ultrathin perovskite nanoplatelets APbBr3. We compare the all-inorganic and hybrid compositions with the A-sites cesium and formamidinium, respectively. Compared to each other and their bulk counterparts, the materials show significant differences in variable-temperature structural and optical evolution. We quantify and correlate structural asymmetry with the excitonic transition energy, spectral purity, and emission rate. Negative thermal expansion, structural and photoluminescence asymmetry, photoluminescence full width at half-maximum, and splitting between bright and dark excitonic levels are found to be reduced in the hybrid composition. This work provides composition- and structure-based mechanisms for engineering of the excitons in these materials.

Synthesis of Zwitterionic CsPbBr3 Nanocrystals with Controlled Anisotropy using Surface-Selective Ligand Pairs

Mechanistic studies of the morphology of lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (LHP-NCs) are hampered by a lack of generalizable suitable synthetic strategies and ligand systems. Here, the synthesis of zwitterionic CsPbBr3 NCs is presented with controlled anisotropy using a proposed "surface-selective ligand pairs" strategy. Such a strategy provides a platform to systematically study the binding affinity of capping ligand pairs and the resulting LHP morphologies. By using zwitterionic ligands (ZwL) with varying structures, majority ZwL-capped LHP NCs with controlled morphology are obtained, including anisotropic nanoplatelets and nanorods, for the first time. Combining experiments with density functional theory calculations, factors that govern the ligand binding on the different surface facets of LHP-NCs are revealed, including the steric bulkiness of the ligand, the number of binding sites, and the charge distance between binding moieties. This study provides guidance for the further exploration of anisotropic LHP-NCs.

Time-Resolved Line Shapes of Single Quantum Emitters via Machine Learned Photon Correlations

Solid-state single-photon emitters (SPEs) are quantum light sources that combine atomlike optical properties with solid-state integration and fabrication capabilities. SPEs are hindered by spectral diffusion, where the emitter's surrounding environment induces random energy fluctuations. Timescales of spectral diffusion span nanoseconds to minutes and require probing single emitters to remove ensemble averaging. Photon correlation Fourier spectroscopy (PCFS) can be used to measure time-resolved single emitter line shapes, but is hindered by poor signal-to-noise ratio in the measured correlation functions at early times due to low photon counts. Here, we develop a framework to simulate PCFS correlation functions directly from diffusing spectra that match well with experimental data for single colloidal quantum dots. We use these simulated datasets to train a deep ensemble autoencoder machine learning model that outputs accurate, noiseless, and probabilistic reconstructions of the noisy correlations. Using this model, we obtain reconstructed time-resolved single dot emission line shapes at timescales as low as 10 ns, which are otherwise completely obscured by noise. This enables PCFS to extract optical coherence times on the same timescales as Hong-Ou-Mandel two-photon interference, but with the advantage of providing spectral information in addition to estimates of photon indistinguishability. Our machine learning approach is broadly applicable to different photon correlation spectroscopy techniques and SPE systems, offering an enhanced tool for probing single emitter line shapes on previously inaccessible timescales.

Elastic Phonon Scattering Dominates Dephasing in Weakly Confined Cesium Lead Bromide Nanocrystals at Cryogenic Temperatures

Cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have emerged as a potential next-generation single quantum emitter (QE) material for quantum optics and quantum information science. Optical dephasing processes at cryogenic temperatures are critical to the quality of a QE, making a mechanistic understanding of coherence losses of fundamental interest. We use photon-correlation Fourier spectroscopy (PCFS) to obtain a lower bound to the optical coherence times of single PNCs as a function of temperature. We find that 20 nm CsPbBr₃ PNCs emit nearly exclusively into a narrow zero-phonon line from 4 to 13 K. Remarkably, no spectral diffusion is observed at time scales of 10 μs to 5 ms. Our results suggest that exciton dephasing in this temperature range is dominated by elastic scattering from phonon modes with characteristic frequencies of 1-3 meV, while inelastic scattering is minimal due to weak exciton-phonon coupling.

Controlled Assembly and Anomalous Thermal Expansion of Ultrathin Cesium Lead Bromide Nanoplatelets

Quantum confined lead halide perovskite nanoplatelets are anisotropic materials displaying strongly bound excitons with spectrally pure photoluminescence. We report the controlled assembly of CsPbBr₃ nanoplatelets through varying the evaporation rate of the dispersion solvent. We confirm the assembly of superlattices in the face-down and edge-up configurations by electron microscopy, as well as X-ray scattering and diffraction. Polarization-resolved spectroscopy shows that superlattices in the edge-up configuration display significantly polarized emission compared to face-down counterparts. Variable-temperature X-ray diffraction of both face-down and edge-up superlattices uncovers a uniaxial negative thermal expansion in ultrathin nanoplatelets, which reconciles the anomalous temperature dependence of the emission energy. Additional structural aspects are investigated by multilayer diffraction fitting, revealing a significant decrease in superlattice order with decreasing temperature, with a concomitant expansion of the organic sublattice and increase of lead halide octahedral tilt.

Narrow Intrinsic Line Widths and Electron-Phonon Coupling of InP Colloidal Quantum Dots

InP quantum dots (QDs) are the material of choice for QD display applications and have been used as active layers in QD light-emitting diodes (QDLEDs) with high efficiency and color purity. Optimizing the color purity of QDs requires understanding mechanisms of spectral broadening. While ensemble-level broadening can be minimized by synthetic tuning to yield monodisperse QD sizes, single QD line widths are broadened by exciton-phonon scattering and fine-structure splitting. Here, using photon-correlation Fourier spectroscopy, we extract average single QD line widths of 50 meV at 293 K for red-emitting InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs, among the narrowest for colloidal QDs. We measure InP/ZnSe/ZnS single QD emission line shapes at temperatures between 4 and 293 K and model the spectra using a modified independent boson model. We find that inelastic acoustic phonon scattering and fine-structure splitting are the most prominent broadening mechanisms at low temperatures, whereas pure dephasing from elastic acoustic phonon scattering is the primary broadening mechanism at elevated temperatures, and optical phonon scattering contributes minimally across all temperatures. Conversely for CdSe/CdS/ZnS QDs, we find that optical phonon scattering is a larger contributor to the line shape at elevated temperatures, leading to intrinsically broader single-dot line widths than for InP/ZnSe/ZnS. We are able to reconcile narrow low-temperature line widths and broad room-temperature line widths within a self-consistent model that enables parametrization of line width broadening, for different material classes. This can be used for the rational design of more spectrally narrow materials. Our findings reveal that red-emitting InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs have intrinsically narrower line widths than typically synthesized CdSe QDs, suggesting that these materials could be used to realize QDLEDs with high color purity.

One-Dimensional Highly-Confined CsPbBr3 Nanorods with Enhanced Stability: Synthesis and Spectroscopy

One-dimensional (1D) colloidal lead halide perovskites (LHPs) have potential as quantum emitters. Their study, however, has been hampered by their previous instability, leaving a gap in our understanding of structure-property relationships in colloidal LHPs with anisotropic shapes. Here, we synthesize stable, highly-confined 1D CsPbBr₃ nanorods (NRs) and demonstrate their structural details and photoluminescence (PL) properties at both the ensemble and single particle levels. Using amino-terminated copolymers, we are able to stabilize and characterize 1D CsPbBr₃ NRs utilizing transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small angle scattering (SAS). Scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that these NRs possess structural defects, including twists and inhomogeneity. Solution-phase photon correlation spectroscopy shows low biexciton-to-exciton quantum yield ratios (QY_BX/QY_X) and broad spectral line widths dominated by homogeneous broadening.

Enhanced visible light absorption in layered Cs3Bi2Br9 through mixed-valence Sn(ii)/Sn(iv) doping

Lead-free halides with perovskite-related structures, such as the vacancy-ordered perovskite Cs₃Bi₂Br₉, are of interest for photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications. We find that addition of SnBr₂ to the solution-phase synthesis of Cs₃Bi₂Br₉ leads to substitution of up to 7% of the Bi(iii) ions by equal quantities of Sn(ii) and Sn(iv). The nature of the substitutional defects was studied by X-ray diffraction, ¹³³Cs and ¹¹⁹Sn solid state NMR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. The resulting mixed-valence compounds show intense visible and near infrared absorption due to intervalence charge transfer, as well as electronic transitions to and from localised Sn-based states within the band gap. Sn(ii) and Sn(iv) defects preferentially occupy neighbouring B-cation sites, forming a double-substitution complex. Unusually for a Sn(ii) compound, the material shows minimal changes in optical and structural properties after 12 months storage in air. Our calculations suggest the stabilisation of Sn(ii) within the double substitution complex contributes to this unusual stability. These results expand upon research on inorganic mixed-valent halides to a new, layered structure, and offer insights into the tuning, doping mechanisms, and structure-property relationships of lead-free vacancy-ordered perovskite structures.