Luminescent Properties of Metal Halide Perovskites

Metal halide perovskites exhibit a remarkable range of luminescent phenomena arising from their unique crystal structures, tunable bandgaps and excitonic features. In three-dimensional (3D) perovskites such as CsPbX₃ (X = Cl, Br, I), high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and narrow emission linewidths are underpinned by delocalised excitons within the inorganic framework. Low-dimensional derivatives—two-dimensional (2D), one-dimensional (1D) and zero-dimensional (0D) structures—further enrich the luminescence landscape through quantum and dielectric confinement. These architectures facilitate self-trapped exciton emission, broadband white-light output and persistent afterglow, broadening application potential from light-emitting diodes to anti-counterfeiting and thermographic devices. Chemical composition, defect engineering and dopant strategies permit fine control over emission colour, lifetime and stability under moisture, heat and light. Recent advances in dynamic luminescence, including time-valve controllable afterglow and Janus-type excitation-dependent emission, demonstrate how halide and cation doping can break local symmetry to generate multiple trap states. Overall, the interplay of structure, trap-state landscape and exciton dynamics in metal halide perovskites has established them as versatile luminescent platforms for next-generation optoelectronic technologies.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have introduced a straightforward wet-chemistry route to all-inorganic hexagonal CsCdCl₃ perovskites doped simultaneously with Br⁻ and Sn²⁺. This approach generates new trapping centres associated with mixed Cd–Br and Sn–Cd clusters, disrupting local symmetry and yielding multimode long persistent luminescence (LPL). The materials display afterglow durations exceeding 2,000 s, nearly full-colour coverage and a PLQY of about 84 %, while resisting thermal quenching up to 377 K. Notably, Br-doped compositions exhibit time-valve controllable LPL, and Sn-doped variants show Janus-type luminescence that depends on excitation direction. Experimental and computational analyses elucidate how local symmetry breaking simultaneously enhances afterglow lifetime and efficiency, pointing to dynamic tunability for applications in photonics, high-security anti-counterfeiting and information storage.

Luminescent Properties of Metal Halide Perovskites publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in luminescent properties of metal halide perovskites across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Photoluminescence Quantum Yield (PLQY): The ratio of photons emitted to photons absorbed, indicating the efficiency of luminescence.

Self-Trapped Exciton: An exciton localised by lattice distortion, often resulting in broadband emission with significant Stokes shift.

Long Persistent Luminescence (LPL): Emission that persists for seconds to hours after removal of excitation, enabled by trap states and slow carrier de-trapping.

Zero-Dimensional Perovskite: A structure comprised of fully isolated metal halide units embedded in an organic or inorganic matrix, leading to discrete electronic states.

Dexter Energy Transfer: A short-range, exchange-coupling mechanism for energy transfer between adjacent luminescent centres.

Trap Centre: A defect or dopant site that captures charge carriers, controlling afterglow duration and emission kinetics.

References

1. Achieving Tunable Cold/Warm White-Light Emission in a Single Perovskite Material with Near-Unity Photoluminescence Quantum Yield. Nano-Micro Letters (2023).
2. Full-color, time-valve controllable and Janus-type long-persistent luminescence from all-inorganic halide perovskites. Nature Communications (2024).
3. Luminescent zero-dimensional organic metal halide hybrids with near-unity quantum efficiency. Chemical Science (2018).
4. Nature of Self-Trapped Exciton Emission in Zero-Dimensional Cs2ZrCl6 Perovskite Nanocrystals. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (2023).