No Arabic abstract
With strongly bound and stable excitons at room temperature, single-layer, two-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites are viable semiconductors for light-emitting quantum optoelectronics applications. In such a technological context, it is imperative to comprehensively explore all the factors --- chemical, electronic and structural --- that govern strong multi-exciton correlations. Here, by means of two-dimensional coherent spectroscopy, we examine excitonic many-body effects in pure, single-layer (PEA)$_2$PbI$_4$ (PEA = phenylethylammonium). We determine the binding energy of biexcitons --- correlated two-electron, two-hole quasiparticles --- to be $44 pm 5$,meV at room temperature. The extraordinarily high values are similar to those reported in other strongly excitonic two-dimensional materials such as transition-metal dichalchogenides. Importantly, we show that this binding energy increases by $sim25$% upon cooling to 5,K. Our work highlights the importance of multi-exciton correlations in this class of technologically promising, solution-processable materials, in spite of the strong effects of lattice fluctuations and dynamic disorder.
By means of non-resonant Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, we measure and assign the vibrational spectrum of two distinct two-dimensional lead-iodide perovskite derivatives. These two samples are selected in order to probe the effects of the organic cation on lattice dynamics. One templating cation is composed of a phenyl-substituted ammonium derivative, while the other contains a linear alkyl group. We find that modes that directly involve the organic cation are more prevalent in the phenyl-substituted derivative. Comparison of the temperature dependence of the Raman spectra reveals differences in the nature of dynamic disorder, with a strong dependence on the molecular nature of the organic moiety.
While polarons --- charges bound to a lattice deformation induced by electron-phonon coupling --- are primary photoexcitations at room temperature in bulk metal-halide hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIP), excitons --- Coulomb-bound el-ectron-hole pairs --- are the stable quasi-particles in their two-dimensional (2D) analogues. Here we address the fundamental question: are polaronic effects consequential for excitons in 2D-HIOPs? Based on our recent work, we argue that polaronic effects are manifested intrinsically in the exciton spectral structure, which is comprised of multiple non-degenerate resonances with constant inter-peak energy spacing. We highlight our own measurements of population and dephasing dynamics that point to the apparently deterministic role of polaronic effects in excitonic properties. We contend that an interplay of long-range and short-range exciton-lattice couplings give rise to exciton polarons, a character that fundamentally establishes their effective mass and radius, and consequently, their quantum dynamics. Finally, we highlight opportunities for the community to develop the rigorous description of exciton polarons in 2D-HIOPs to advance their fundamental understanding as model systems for condensed-phase materials in which lattice-mediated correlations are fundamental to their physical properties.
Whereas their photophysics exhibits an intricate interplay of carriers with the lattice, most reports have so far relied on single compound studies. With the exception of variations of the organic spacer cations, the effect of constituent substitution on the photophysics and the nature of emitting species, in particular, has remained largely under-explored. Here PEA$_2$PbBr$_4$, PEA$_2$PbI$_4$, and PEA$_2$SnI$_4$ are studied through a variety of optical spectroscopy techniques to reveal a complex set of excitonic transitions at low temperature. We attribute the emergence of weak high energy features to a vibronic progression breaking Kashas rule and highlight that the responsible phonons cannot be accessed through simple Raman spectroscopy. Bright peaks at lower energy are due to two distinct excitons, of which the upper is a convolution of a bright exciton and a localised state, whereas the lower is attributed to shallow defects. Our study offers deeper insights into the photophysics of two-dimensional perovskites through compositional substitution and highlights critical limits to the communities current understanding of the photophysics of these compounds.
Hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductors feature complex lattice dynamics due to the ionic character of the crystal and the softness arising from non-covalent bonds between molecular moieties and the inorganic network. Here we establish that such dynamic structural complexity in a prototypical two-dimensional lead iodide perovskite gives rise to the coexistence of diverse excitonic resonances, each with a distinct degree of polaronic character. By means of high-resolution resonant impulsive stimulated Raman spectroscopy, we identify vibrational wavepacket dynamics that evolve along different configurational coordinates for distinct excitons and photocarriers. Employing density functional theory calculations, we assign the observed coherent vibrational modes to various low-frequency ($lesssim 50$,cm$^{-1}$) optical phonons involving motion in the lead-iodide layers. We thus conclude that different excitons induce specific lattice reorganizations, which are signatures of polaronic binding. This insight on the energetic/configurational landscape involving globally neutral primary photoexcitations may be relevant to a broader class of emerging hybrid semiconductor materials.
Metal halide perovskites exhibit a materials physics that is distinct from traditional inorganic and organic semiconductors. While materials such as CH3NH3PbI3 are non-magnetic, the presence of heavy elements (Pb and I) in a non-centrosymmetric crystal environment result in a significant spin-splitting of the frontier electronic bands through the Rashba-Dresselhaus effect. We show, from a combination of textit{ab initio} molecular dynamics, density-functional theory, and relativistic quasi-particle textit{GW} theory, that the nature (magnitude and orientation) of the band splitting depends on the local asymmetry around the Pb and I sites in the perovskite structure. The potential fluctuations vary in time as a result of thermal disorder and a dynamic lone pair instability of the Pb(II) 6s$^{2}$6p$^{0}$ ion. We show that the same physics emerges both for the organic-inorganic CH3NH3PbI3 and the inorganic CsPbI3 compound. The results are relevant to the photophysics of these compounds and are expected to be general to other lead iodide containing perovskites.