Highly Emissive Self-Trapped Excitons in Fully Inorganic Zero-Dimensional Tin Halides

Abstract

The spatial localization of charge carriers to promote the formation of bound excitons and concomitantly enhance radiative recombination has long been a goal for luminescent semiconductors. Zero-dimensional materials structurally impose carrier localization and result in the formation of localized Frenkel excitons. Now the fully inorganic, perovskite-derived zero-dimensional Sn^II material Cs₄ SnBr₆ is presented that exhibits room-temperature broad-band photoluminescence centered at 540 nm with a quantum yield (QY) of 15±5 %. A series of analogous compositions following the general formula Cs_4-x A_x Sn(Br_1-y I_y )₆ (A=Rb, K; x≤1, y≤1) can be prepared. The emission of these materials ranges from 500 nm to 620 nm with the possibility to compositionally tune the Stokes shift and the self-trapped exciton emission bands.

Keywords: luminescence; perovskites; self-trapped excitons; solid-state synthesis; tin.