Hole Delayed-Release Effect of Inorganic Interfacial Dipole Layer on Charge Balance for Boosting CsCu<sub>2</sub>I<sub>3</sub> Light-Emitting Diodes.

Zeng, Xiankan; Yin, Qiming; Pan, Lunyao; Chen, Yongjian; Li, Chenglong; Mu, Maolin; Wang, Qungui; Li, Wen et al. · ACS Nano · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

CsCu<sub>2</sub>I<sub>3</sub> light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have attracted tremendous interest due to their environmental friendliness, low-cost processing, and broadband luminescence properties. However, their hole injection efficiency usually towers over electron injection efficiency owing to the intrinsic Cu vacancy-mediated excess hole concentration and wide bandgap of CsCu<sub>2</sub>I<sub>3</sub>, generating severe charge imbalance. Here, we designed an inorganic interfacial dipole layer (IDL) based on lithium chloride to exert a hole delayed-release effect for charge balance in CsCu<sub>2</sub>I<sub>3</sub> LEDs by selectively modulating the energy levels of the contact layers. Accordingly, the IDL-based CsCu<sub>2</sub>I<sub>3</sub> LEDs exhibit a record champion brightness of 2620 cd/m<sup>2</sup> along with a three times enhanced peak external quantum efficiency of 3.73% at 565 nm. Meanwhile, the universality of the hole delayed-release effect of inorganic IDLs is verified by demonstrating enhanced CsCu<sub>2</sub>I<sub>3</sub> LEDs incorporated with other alkali metal salt-based IDLs. This work provides a comprehensive guideline for optimizing the charge transport of lead-free LEDs by charge delayed-release effect of IDLs toward next-generation eco-friendly display applications.