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We have prepared a series of MII4L6 tetrahedral cages containing one or the other of two distinct BODIPY moieties, as well as mixed cages that contain both BODIPY chromophores. The photophysical properties of these cages and their fullerene-encapsulated adducts were studied in depth. Upon cage formation, the charge-transfer character exhibited by the bis(aminophenyl)-BODIPY subcomponents disappeared. Strong excitonic interactions were instead observed between at least two BODIPY chromophores along the edges of the cages, arising from the electronic delocalization through the metal centers. This excited-state delocalization contrasts with previously reported cages. All cages exhibited the same progression from an initial bright singlet state (species I) to a delocalized dark state (species II), driven by interactions between the transition dipoles of the ligands, and subsequently into geometrically relaxed species III. In the case of cages loaded with C60 or C70 fullerenes, ultrafast host-to-guest electron transfer was observed to compete with the excitonic interactions, short-circuiting the I → II → III sequence.

One source of instability in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is interfacial defects, particularly those that exist between the perovskite and the hole transport layer (HTL). We demonstrate that thermally evaporated dopant-free tetra-cene (120 nm) on top of the perovskite layer, capped with a lithium-doped Spiro-OMeTAD layer (200 nm) and top gold electrode, offers an excellent hole-extracting stack with minimal interfacial defect levels. For a perovskite layer interfaced between these graded HTLs and a mesoporous TiO2 electron-extracting layer, its photoluminescence yield reaches 15% compared to 5% for the perovskite layer interfaced between TiO2 and Spiro-OMeTAD alone. For PSCs with graded HTL structure, we demonstrate efficiency of up to 21.6% and an extended power output of over 550 hours of continuous illumination at AM1.5G, retaining more than 90% of the initial performance and thus validating our approach. Our findings represent a breakthrough in the construction of stable PSCs with minimized nonradiative losses.

The generation and recombination of charge carriers in semiconductors through photons controls photovoltaic and light-emitting diode operation. Understanding of these processes in hybrid perovskites has advanced, but remains incomplete. Using femtosecond transient absorption and photoluminescence, it is observed that the luminescence signal shows a rise over 2 ps, while initially hot photogenerated carriers cool to the band edge. This indicates that the luminescence from hot carriers is weaker than that of cold carriers, as expected from strongly radiative transitions in direct gap semiconductors. It is concluded that the electrons and holes show a strong overlap in momentum space, despite recent proposals that Rashba splitting leads to a band offset suppressing such an overlap. A number of possible resolutions to this, including lattice dynamics that remove the Rashba splitting at room temperature, and localization of luminescence events to length scales below 10 nm are considered.

Singlet fission offers the potential to overcome thermodynamic limits in solar cells by converting the energy of a single absorbed photon into two distinct triplet excitons. However, progress is limited by the small family of suitable materials, and new chromophore design principles are needed. Here, we experimentally vindicate the design concept of diradical stabilization in a tunable family of functionalized zethrenes. All molecules in the series exhibit rapid formation of a bound, spin-entangled triplet-pair state TT. It can be dissociated by thermally activated triplet hopping and exhibits surprisingly strong emission for an optically "dark" state, further enhanced with increasing diradical character. We find that the TT excited-state absorption spectral shape correlates with the binding energy between constituent triplets, providing a new tool to understand this unusual state. Our results reveal a versatile new family of tunable materials with excellent optical and photochemical properties for exploitation in singlet fission devices.

We investigate the origin of the broadband visible emission in layered hybrid lead-halide perovskites and its connection with structural and photophysical properties. We study ⟨001⟩ oriented thin films of hexylammonium (HA) lead iodide, (C6H16N)2PbI4, and dodecylammonium (DA) lead iodide, (C12H28N)2PbI4, by combining first-principles simulations with time-resolved photoluminescence, steady-state absorption and X-ray diffraction measurements on cooling from 300 to 4 K. Ultrafast transient absorption and photoluminescence measurements are used to track the formation and recombination of emissive states. In addition to the excitonic photoluminescence near the absorption edge, we find a red-shifted, broadband (full-width at half-maximum of about 0.4 eV), emission band below 200 K, similar to emission from ⟨110⟩ oriented bromide 2D perovskites at room temperature. The lifetime of this sub-band-gap emission exceeds that of the excitonic transition by orders of magnitude. We use X-ray diffraction measurements to study the changes in crystal lattice with temperature. We report changes in the octahedral tilt and lattice spacing in both materials, together with a phase change around 200 K in DA2PbI4. DFT simulations of the HA2PbI4 crystal structure indicate that the low-energy emission is due to interstitial iodide and related Frenkel defects. Our results demonstrate that white-light emission is not limited to ⟨110⟩ oriented bromide 2D perovskites but a general property of this class of system, and highlight the importance of defect control for the formation of low-energy emissive sites, which can provide a pathway to design tailored white-light emitters.

Cesium lead halide nanocrystals, CsPbX$_{3}$ (X = Cl, Br, I), exhibit photoluminescence quantum efficiencies approaching 100% without the core-shell structures usually used in conventional semiconductor nanocrystals. These high photoluminescence efficiencies make these crystals ideal candidates for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). However, because of the large surface area to volume ratio, halogen exchange between perovskite nanocrystals of different compositions occurs rapidly, which is one of the limiting factors for white-light applications requiring a mixture of different crystal compositions to achieve a broad emission spectrum. Here, we use mixtures of chloride and iodide CsPbX$_{3}$ (X = Cl, I) perovskite nanocrystals where anion exchange is significantly reduced. We investigate samples containing mixtures of perovskite nanocrystals with different compositions and study the resulting optical and electrical interactions. We report excitation transfer from CsPbCl$_{3}$ to CsPbI$_{3}$ in solution and within a poly(methyl methacrylate) matrix via photon reabsorption, which also occurs in electrically excited crystals in bulk heterojunction LEDs.

Metal halide perovskite crystal structures have emerged as a class of optoelectronic materials, which combine the ease of solution processability with excellent optical absorption and emission qualities. Restricting the physical dimensions of the perovskite crystallites to a few nanometers can also unlock spatial confinement effects, which allow large spectral tunability and high luminescence quantum yields at low excitation densities. However, the most promising perovskite structures rely on lead as a cationic species, thereby hindering commercial application. The replacement of lead with nontoxic alternatives such as tin has been demonstrated in bulk films, but not in spatially confined nanocrystals. Here, we synthesize CsSnX3 (X = Cl, Cl0.5Br0.5, Br, Br0.5I0.5, I) perovskite nanocrystals and provide evidence of their spectral tunability through both quantum confinement effects and control of the anionic composition. We show that luminescence from Sn-based perovskite nanocrystals occurs on pico- to nanosecond time scales via two spectrally distinct radiative decay processes, which we assign to band-to-band emission and radiative recombination at shallow intrinsic defect sites.