Odd-Even Cation Engineering of the Excitation Transport Anisotropy in Two-Dimensional Perovskite Films.

Du, Jiaxing; Righetto, Marcello; Choghaei, Maryam; Yan, Siyu; Wallerius, Christopher A; Meerholz, Klaus; Johnston, Michael B; Olthof, Selina et al. · ACS Nano · 2026

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Two-dimensional perovskites have emerged as promising materials for optoelectronic applications owing to their excellent environmental stability and tunable quantum confinement. Such 2D perovskites can incorporate a particularly versatile range of organic cations of different size, chemical nature, and optoelectronic character. However, understanding and controlling thin-film transport for this vast family of materials remains a key challenge to their successful application in devices. Here, we systematically investigate odd-even effects in thin films of Ruddlesden-Popper-type (RP) lead-iodide 2D perovskites based on nonconjugated alkylammonium spacer cations with chain lengths ranging from three to eight carbon atoms. A pronounced odd-even dependence on the carbon number is observed in both optical and transport properties, including absorption coefficients, photoluminescence energies and lifetimes, and excitation diffusion dynamics. Notably, the coefficients for charge-carrier diffusion out of the film plane─extracted via a dynamic photon reabsorption approach─display an opposite odd-even trend to the in-plane charge-carrier mobility obtained from optical pump-terahertz probe measurements, causing a pronounced odd-even modulation of the thin-film mobility anisotropy. Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements reveal that this behavior is related to cation-controlled nanostructural orientation: even-numbered alkyl spacer cations induce lead-iodide planes lying highly oriented within the film plane, while odd-numbered ones cause more disordered stacking. Furthermore, the observed 1/d<sup>2</sup>-dependence on interplane distance <i>d</i> in ordered films demonstrates that Förster resonance energy transfer underpins diffusion of excitations between lead-iodide layers. Our findings establish a direct structure-transport correlation in 2D perovskite films and provide valuable guidelines for the design of optoelectronic devices.