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1. Heterodyne transient vibrational SFG to reveal molecular responses to interfacial charge transfer

   https://doi.org/1.5066237  

   Li, Yingmin; Xiang, Bo; Xiong, Wei (March 2019, Journal of chemical physics)

   We demonstrate heterodyne detected transient vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy and use it to probe transient electric fields caused by interfacial charge transfer at organic semiconductor and metal interfaces. The static and transient VSFG spectra are composed of both non-resonant and molecular resonant responses. To further disentangle both contributions, we apply phase rotation to make the imaginary part of the spectra be purely molecular responses and the real part of the spectra be dominated by non-resonant signals. By separating non-resonant and molecular signals, we can track their responses to the transient electric-fields at interfaces independently. This technique combined with the phase sensitivity gained by heterodyne detection allows us to successfully identify three types of photoinduced dynamics at organic semiconductor/metal interfaces: coherent artifacts, optical excitations that do not lead to charge transfer, and direct charge transfers. The ability to separately follow the influence of built-in electric fields to interfacial molecules, regardless of strong nonresonant signals, will enable tracking of ultrafast charge dynamics with molecular specificities on molecular optoelectronics, photovoltaics, and solar materials. 

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2. In-plane orientational motions of the functional groups of molecules at the air/water interface by time-resolved vibrational sum frequency generation

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0230223  

   Huang-Fu, Zhi-Chao; Zhang, Tong; Brown, Jesse B; Qian, Yuqin; Fisher, Haley; Rao, Yi (October 2024, The Journal of Chemical Physics)

   The movements of molecules at interfaces and surfaces are restricted by their asymmetric environments, leading to anisotropic orientational motions. In this work, in-plane orientational motions of the –C=O and –CF3 groups of coumarin 153 (C153) at the air/water interface were measured using time-resolved (TR) vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG). The in-plane orientational time constants of the –C=O and –CF3 groups of C153 are found to be 41.5 ± 8.2 and 36.0 ± 4.5 ps. These values are over five-times faster than that of 198 ± 15 ps for the permanent dipole of the whole C153 molecule at the interface, which may indicate that the two groups experience different interfacial friction in the plane. These differences could also be the result of the permanent dipole of C153 being almost five times those of the –C=O and –CF3 groups. The difference in orientational motions reveals the microscopic heterogeneous environment that molecules experience at the interface. While the interfacial dynamics of the two functional groups are similar, our TR-SFG experiments allowed the quantification of the in-plane dynamics of individual functional groups for the first time. Our experimental findings about the interfacial molecular motion have implications for molecular rotations, energy transfer, and charge transfer at material interfaces, photocatalysis interfaces, and biological cell/membrane aqueous interfaces. 

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3. Stark control of electrons across the molecule–semiconductor interface

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0154862  

   Garzón-Ramírez, Antonio J; Franco, Ignacio (July 2023, The Journal of Chemical Physics)

   Controlling matter at the level of electrons using ultrafast laser sources represents an important challenge for science and technology. Recently, we introduced a general laser control scheme (the Stark control of electrons at interfaces or SCELI) based on the Stark effect that uses the subcycle structure of light to manipulate electron dynamics at semiconductor interfaces [A. Garzón-Ramírez and I. Franco, Phys. Rev. B 98, 121305 (2018)]. Here, we demonstrate that SCELI is also of general applicability in molecule–semiconductor interfaces. We do so by following the quantum dynamics induced by non-resonant few-cycle laser pulses of intermediate intensity (non-perturbative but non-ionizing) across model molecule–semiconductor interfaces of varying level alignments. We show that SCELI induces interfacial charge transfer regardless of the energy level alignment of the interface and even in situations where charge exchange is forbidden via resonant photoexcitation. We further show that the SCELI rate of charge transfer is faster than those offered by resonant photoexcitation routes as it is controlled by the subcycle structure of light. The results underscore the general applicability of SCELI to manipulate electron dynamics at interfaces on ultrafast timescales. 

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4. Ab initio nonadiabatic molecular dynamics of charge carriers in metal halide perovskites

   https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nr01990b  

   Li, Wei; She, Yalan; Vasenko, Andrey S.; Prezhdo, Oleg V. (June 2021, Nanoscale)

   Photoinduced nonequilibrium processes in nanoscale materials play key roles in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. This review summarizes recent theoretical investigations of excited state dynamics in metal halide perovskites (MHPs), carried out using a state-of-the-art methodology combining nonadiabatic molecular dynamics with real-time time-dependent density functional theory. The simulations allow one to study evolution of charge carriers at the ab initio level and in the time-domain, in direct connection with time-resolved spectroscopy experiments. Eliminating the need for the common approximations, such as harmonic phonons, a choice of the reaction coordinate, weak electron–phonon coupling, a particular kinetic mechanism, and perturbative calculation of rate constants, we model full-dimensional quantum dynamics of electrons coupled to semiclassical vibrations. We study realistic aspects of material composition and structure and their influence on various nonequilibrium processes, including nonradiative trapping and relaxation of charge carriers, hot carrier cooling and luminescence, Auger-type charge–charge scattering, multiple excitons generation and recombination, charge and energy transfer between donor and acceptor materials, and charge recombination inside individual materials and across donor/acceptor interfaces. These phenomena are illustrated with representative materials and interfaces. Focus is placed on response to external perturbations, formation of point defects and their passivation, mixed stoichiometries, dopants, grain boundaries, and interfaces of MHPs with charge transport layers, and quantum confinement. In addition to bulk materials, perovskite quantum dots and 2D perovskites with different layer and spacer cation structures, edge passivation, and dielectric screening are discussed. The atomistic insights into excited state dynamics under realistic conditions provide the fundamental understanding needed for design of advanced solar energy and optoelectronic devices. 

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5. Unraveling Photoexcitation Dynamics at “Dots-in-a-Perovskite” Heterojunctions from First-Principles

   https://doi.org/10.1039/C9TA04871E  

   Li, Wei; Zhang, Xu; Lu, Gang (January 2019, Journal of Materials Chemistry A)

   Both organohalide perovskites and colloidal quantum dots are attractive and promising materials for optoelectronic applications. Recent experiments have combined the two to create “quantum dot-in-perovskite” assemblies for highly efficient light emissions. In this work, we unravel photoexcitation dynamics at the interface between the perovskite and the quantum dot by means of first-principle non-adiabatic molecular dynamics simulations. We find that such assemblies adopt the type-I band structure and are free of defect states. The interfacial and the electronic structure are robust against the thermal fluctuations at 300K. The lowest excitation is predicted to be localized entirely on the quantum dot and the photoexcited charge transfer takes place in a picosecond timescale. The charge transfer dynamics of the photoexcited electron and hole exhibits a moderate asymmetry, which can be attributed to the differences in electronic coupling between the donor and the acceptor and the electron-phonon coupling. The ultrafast and balanced charge transfer dynamics endows the ‘dot-in-a-crystal’ devices with unprecedented performance, which could lead to important applications in photovoltaics, photocatalysis, and infrared light emissions. 

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