Low-dimensional phase suppression and defect passivation of quasi-2D perovskites for efficient electroluminescence and low-threshold amplified spontaneous emission

Abstract

Quasi-2D metal halide perovskites are promising candidates for light-emitting applications owing to their large exciton binding energy and strong quantum confinement effect. Usually, quasi-2D perovskites are composed of multiple phases with various numbers of layers (n) of metal halide octahedron sheets, enabling light emission from the lowest-bandgap phase by cascade energy transfer. However, the energy transfer processes are extremely sensitive to the phase distribution and trap density in the quasi-2D perovskite films, and the insufficient energy transfer between different-n phases and the defect-induced traps would result in nonradiative losses. Here, significantly reduced nonradiative losses in the quasi-2D perovskite films are achieved by tailoring the low-dimensional phase components and lowering the density of trap states. Butylammonium bromide (BABr) and potassium thiocyanate (KSCN) are employed to synergistically decrease the nonradiative recombination in the quasi-2D perovskite films of PEABr : CsPbBr₃. The incorporation of BABr is found to suppress the formation of the n = 1 phase, while adding KSCN can further reduce the low-n phases, passivate the notorious defects and improve the alignment of the high-n phases. By incorporating appropriate contents of BABr and KSCN, the resultant quasi-2D perovskite films show high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and highly ordered crystal orientation, which enable not only the green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 16.3%, but also the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) with a low threshold of 2.6 μJ cm⁻². These findings provide a simple and effective strategy to develop high-quality quasi-2D perovskites for LED and laser applications.