An official website of the United States government
Abstract Rational design of chiral two‐dimensional hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites is crucial to achieve chiroptoelecronic, spintronic, and ferroelectric applications. Here, an efficient way to manipulate the chiroptoelectronic activity of 2D lead iodide perovskites is reported by forming mixed chiral (R‐ or S‐methylbenzylammonium (R‐MBA+or S‐MBA+)) and achiral (n‐butylammonium (nBA+)) cations in the organic layer. The strongest and flipped circular dichroism signals are observed in (R/S‐MBA0.5nBA0.5)2PbI4films compared to (R/S‐MBA)2PbI4. Moreover, the (R/S‐MBA0.5nBA0.5)2PbI4films exhibit pseudo‐symmetric, unchanged circularly polarized photoluminescence peak as temperature increases. First‐principles calculations reveal that mixed chiral–achiral cations enhance the asymmetric hydrogen‐bonding interaction between the organic and inorganic layers, causing more structural distortion, thus, larger spin‐polarized band‐splitting than pure chiral cations. Temperature‐dependent powder X‐ray diffraction and pair distribution function structure studies show the compressed intralayer lattice with enlarged interlayer spacing and increased local ordering. Overall, this work demonstrates a new method to tune chiral and chiroptoelectronic properties and reveals their atomic scale structural origins.
more »
« less
Computational and Experimental Investigation of Chiral and Achiral Two‐Dimensional Organic Lead Bromide Perovskites: Octahedral Distortions and Electronic and Optical Properties
A computational investigation is presented, in conjunction with synthesis and experimental characterization, into the structural, electronic, and optical properties of layered two‐dimensional organic lead bromide perovskites. Materials based on the chiral (R/S)‐4‐fluoro‐α‐methylbenzylammonium (R/S‐FMBA), which have been shown to lead to bright room‐temperature circularly polarized luminescence, are contrasted with the similar achiral 4‐fluorobenzylammonium (FBA). Using density functional theory (DFT) with van der Waals (vdW) corrections, relaxed structures (compared with X‐ray diffraction, XRD) and optical absorption spectra (compared with experiments) are studied, as well as band structure and orbital character of transitions. A Python code is developed and provided to calculate octahedral distortions and compare DFT and XRD results, finding that vdW corrections are important for accuracy and that DFT overestimates octahedral tilt angles. (FMBA)2PbBr4shows among the largest tilt angle differences (often termed ) reported, 14°–15°, indicating strong inversion symmetry‐breaking, which enables its chiral emission. A large resulting Dresselhaus spin‐splitting effect is found. The lowest‐energy optical transitions involve the perovskite only and are polarized within the layer. This work furthers understanding of structure‐property relations with applications to optoelectronics and spintronics.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2204466
- PAR ID:
- 10644667
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ChemPhysChem
- ISSN:
- 1439-4235
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Naturally occurring layered mineral livingstonite is identified as a new type of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure based 2D material, consisting of two commensurately modulated alternating layers of HgSb2S4and Sb2S4. The heterostructures of livingstonite crystal are prepared as thin flakes via mechanical exfoliation method. The prepared livingstonite crystals are further investigated in the context of vibrational, linear, and nonlinear optical properties, including anisotropic Raman scattering, wavelength-dependent linear dichroism (LD) transition effect, birefringence, and anisotropic third-harmonic generation (THG). Owing to the monoclinic crystal structure, livingstonite crystals exhibit strong anisotropic vibrational and optical responses. In contrast to conventional vdW heterostructures, the anomalous LD transition effect and the evolution of butterfly-shaped THG emission pattern in livingstonite crystals are demonstrated. Furthermore, the third-order nonlinear susceptibility is estimated for livingstonite crystal using the thickness-dependent THG emission response. Overall, the discussed outcomes establish livingstonite as a new type of naturally grown vdW heterostructure based 2D material and offer insights in tailoring linear and nonlinear light-matter interactions in such vdW heterostructures, which may find further relevance in polarized optical applications and on-chip integrated photonic circuits.more » « less
-
The structure of a series of lanthanide iron cobalt perovskite oxides, R (Fe 0.5 Co 0.5 )O 3 ( R = Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, and Gd), have been investigated. The space group of these compounds was confirmed to be orthorhombic Pnma (No. 62), Z = 4. From Pr to Gd, the lattice parameter a varies from 5.466 35(13) Å to 5.507 10(13) Å, b from 7.7018(2) to 7.561 75(13) Å, c from 5.443 38(10) to 5.292 00(8) Å, and unit-cell volume V from 229.170(9) Å 3 to 220.376(9) Å 3 , respectively. While the trend of V follows the trend of the lanthanide contraction, the lattice parameter “ a ” increases as the ionic radius r ( R 3+ ) decreases. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy confirm that Fe and Co are disordered over the octahedral sites. The structure distortion of these compounds is evidenced in the tilt angles θ, ϕ , and ω , which represent rotations of an octahedron about the pseudocubic perovskite [110] p , [001] p , and [111] p axes. All three tilt angles increase across the lanthanide series (for R = Pr to R = Gd: θ increases from 12.3° to 15.2°, ϕ from 7.5° to 15.8°, and ω from 14.4° to 21.7°), indicating a greater octahedral distortion as r ( R 3+ ) decreases. The bond valence sum for the sixfold (Fe/Co) site and the eightfold R site of R (Fe 0.5 Co 0.5 )O 3 reveal no significant bond strain. Density Functional Theory calculations for Pr(Fe 0.5 Co 0.5 )O 3 support the disorder of Fe and Co and suggest that this compound to be a narrow band gap semiconductor. XRD patterns of the R (Fe 0.5 Co 0.5 )O 3 samples were submitted to the Powder Diffraction File.more » « less
-
Abstract Trigonal tellurium (Te) is a chiral semiconductor that lacks both mirror and inversion symmetries, resulting in complex band structures with Weyl crossings and unique spin textures. Detailed time-resolved polarized reflectance spectroscopy is used to investigate its band structure and carrier dynamics. The polarized transient spectra reveal optical transitions between the uppermost spin-splitH4andH5and the degenerateH6valence bands (VB) and the lowest degenerateH6conduction band (CB) as well as a higher energy transition at the L-point. Surprisingly, the degeneracy of theH6CB (a proposed Weyl node) is lifted and the spin-split VB gap is reduced upon photoexcitation before relaxing to equilibrium as the carriers decay. Using ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we conclude that the dynamic band structure is caused by a photoinduced shear strain in the Te film that breaks the screw symmetry of the crystal. The band-edge anisotropy is also reflected in the hot carrier decay rate, which is a factor of two slower along the c-axis than perpendicular to it. The majority of photoexcited carriers near the band-edge are seen to recombine within 30 ps while higher lying transitions observed near 1.2 eV appear to have substantially longer lifetimes, potentially due to contributions of intervalley processes in the recombination rate. These new findings shed light on the strong correlation between photoinduced carriers and electronic structure in anisotropic crystals, which opens a potential pathway for designing novel Te-based devices that take advantage of the topological structures as well as strong spin-related properties.more » « less
-
Perovskite oxide heterostructures host a large number of interesting phenomena such as ferroelectricity, which are often driven by octahedral distortions in the crystal that may induce polarization. SrHfO3 (SHO) is a perovskite oxide with a pseudocubic lattice parameter of 4.08 Å that previous density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest can be stabilized in a ferroelectric P4mm phase when stabilized with sufficient compressive strain. Additionally, it is insulating and possesses a large band gap and a high dielectric constant, making it an ideal candidate for oxide electronic devices. To test the viability of epitaxial strain as a driver of ferroic phase transitions, SHO films were grown by hybrid molecular beam epitaxy (hMBE) with a tetrakis(ethylmethylamino)hafnium(IV) source on GdScO3 and TbScO3 substrates. Strained SHO phases were characterized using X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscopy to determine the space group of the strained films, with the results compared to those of DFT-optimized models of phase stability versus strain. Contrary to past reports, we find that compressively strained SrHfO3 undergoes octahedral tilt distortions without associated ferroelectric polarization and most likely takes on the I4/mcm phase with the a0a0c– tilt pattern.more » « less
