Terahertz Spectroscopic Probe of Hot Electron and Hole Transfer from Colloidal CsPbBr<sub>3</sub> Perovskite Nanocrystals.

Sarkar, Sohini; Ravi, Vikash Kumar; Banerjee, Sneha; Yettapu, Gurivi Reddy; Markad, Ganesh B; Nag, Angshuman; Mandal, Pankaj · Nano Lett · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Colloidal all inorganic CsPbX<sub>3</sub> (X = Cl, Br, I) nanocrystals (NCs) have emerged to be an excellent material for applications in light emission, photovoltaics, and photocatalysis. Efficient interfacial transfer of photogenerated electrons and holes are essential for a good photovoltaic and photocatalytic material. Using time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy, we have measured the kinetics of photogenerated electron and hole transfer processes in CsPbBr<sub>3</sub> NCs in the presence of benzoquinone and phenothiazine molecules as electron and hole acceptors, respectively. Efficient hot electron/hole transfer with a sub-300 fs time scale is the major channel of carrier transfer thus overcomes the problem related to Auger recombination. A secondary transfer of thermalized carriers also takes place with time scales of 20-50 ps for electrons and 137-166 ps for holes. This work suggests that suitable interfaces of CsPbX<sub>3</sub> NCs with electron and hole transport layers would harvest hot carriers, increasing the photovoltaic and photocatalytic efficiencies.