Effect of energy transfer on the optical properties of surface-passivated perovskite films with CdSe/ZnS quantum dots

Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 5;9(1):18433. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-54860-1.

Abstract

Surface passivation is an effective method to protect the surfaces and improve the luminescence properties of perovskite (PS) films. CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) have been employed for surface passivation of PS films because of their size-dependent tunable bandgaps. Herein, the energy transfer (ET) behavior of CH3NH3PbI2Br PS films covered with CdSe/ZnS QDs (QD/PS hybrid structures) is characterized by using photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. The PL decay time and the integrated PL intensity of the QD/PS hybrid structure increase compared with those of the bare PS films, owing to ET from the QDs to the PS and reduced charge traps. The ET efficiency increases from ~7% to 63% for the QD/PS hybrid structure when the core diameter of the QDs decreases from 6.5 to 2.7 nm, respectively. This can be explained by the charge transfer rate enhancement due to the control of energy level alignment of QDs. These results allow us to understand fundamental mechanisms such as ET from QDs to PS films as a function of the size of the QD.