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Bright and stable perovskite light-emitting diodes in the near-infrared range

Abstract

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have attracted broad attention due to their rapidly increasing external quantum efficiencies (EQEs)1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. However, most high EQEs of perovskite LEDs are reported at low current densities (<1 mA cm−2) and low brightness. Decrease in efficiency and rapid degradation at high brightness inhibit their practical applications. Here, we demonstrate perovskite LEDs with exceptional performance at high brightness, achieved by the introduction of a multifunctional molecule that simultaneously removes non-radiative regions in the perovskite films and suppresses luminescence quenching of perovskites at the interface with charge-transport layers. The resulting LEDs emit near-infrared light at 800 nm, show a peak EQE of 23.8% at 33 mA cm−2 and retain EQEs more than 10% at high current densities of up to 1,000 mA cm−2. In pulsed operation, they retain EQE of 16% at an ultrahigh current density of 4,000 mA cm−2, along with a high radiance of more than 3,200 W s−1 m−2. Notably, an operational half-lifetime of 32 h at an initial radiance of 107 W s−1 m−2 has been achieved, representing the best stability for perovskite LEDs having EQEs exceeding 20% at high brightness levels. The demonstration of efficient and stable perovskite LEDs at high brightness is an important step towards commercialization and opens up new opportunities beyond conventional LED technologies, such as perovskite electrically pumped lasers.

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Fig. 1: Perovskite LED structure and performance.
Fig. 2: Characteristics of perovskite films and molecular interactions.
Fig. 3: Charge-carrier kinetics of perovskite films.
Fig. 4: Time-resolved PL decay kinetics of perovskites with charge-transport layers.

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Data availability

The data underlying this paper are available at the University of Cambridge repository (https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.92711).

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Acknowledgements

Y.S. and L.D. acknowledge support from the China Scholarship Council and Cambridge Trust Scholarship. L.G., L.-S.C. and D.Y. acknowledge funding from the USTC Research Funds of the Double First-Class Initiative and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (grant no. 52103242). This work was partially carried out at the USTC Centre for Micro and Nanoscale Research and Fabrication. This work used resources of the supercomputing system in the Supercomputing Centre of University of Science and Technology of China. C.C. and S.D.S. acknowledge the BrainLink program funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT through the National Research Foundation of Korea (grant no. NRF-2022H1D3A3A01077343). J.F.O. acknowledges funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Nano Doctoral Training Centre (grant no. EP/L015978/1). SEM-CL studies were supported by the EPSRC (grant no. EP/R025193/1) and G. Kusch is thanked for his continued support with the cathodoluminescence system. K.J. acknowledges funding from the Royal Society. S.D.S. acknowledges funding from the Royal Society and Tata Group (UF150033). We acknowledge support from the European Research Council (European Union’s Horizon 2020, grant nos. HYPERION 756962 and PEROVSCI 957513). S.J.Z. acknowledges support from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange in the Bekker program (grant no. PPN/BEK/2020/1/00264/U/00001). Y.L. acknowledges support from Simons Foundation (grant no. 601946) and A*STAR under its Young Achiever Award. This work used resources provided by the Cambridge Service for Data Driven Discovery (CSD3) operated by the University of Cambridge Research Computing Service, provided by Dell EMC and Intel using Tier-2 funding from the EPSRC (grant no. EP/P020259/1) and DiRAC funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. GIWAXS studies were supported by Diamond Light Source for time on Beamline I07 under proposal numbers SI30575-1 and SI30043-1 and M. Anaya, Y. Lu, Y.-H. Chiang and Q. Gu helped with measurement. This work was supported by EPSRC grant nos. EP/R023980/1, EP/S030638/1 and EP/V06164X/1.

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Contributions

Y.S., L.-S.C. and N.C.G. conceived the work. Y.S. developed efficient perovskite LEDs under the supervision of L.-S.C. and N.C.G. L.G. performed chemical synthesis, FTIR and XPS under the supervision of L.-S.C. L.D. performed transient absorption spectroscopy measurements. Y.S. and L.D. performed time-resolved PL measurements. C.C. performed confocal TCSPC measurements. J.F.O. and M.C.L. performed STEM–HAADF and energy-dispersive X-ray measurements under the supervision of C.D. J.F.O. performed SEM-CL measurements. K.J. performed hyperspectral imaging measurements. S.J.Z. performed PDS measurements. A.J.M. performed GIWAXS measurements. Y.L. performed DFT simulations. Y.Z. performed SEM measurements. L.G., Y.W., K.G. and D.Y. performed NMR measurements. L.Z. performed AFM measurements. J.-Y.H., J.L., E.M.T. and S.D.S. assisted in interpreting results. Y.S. wrote the manuscript, which was revised by L.-S.C. and N.C.G. All authors contributed to the work and commented on the paper.

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Correspondence to Lin-Song Cui or Neil C. Greenham.

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Nature thanks Shuxia Tao and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Sun, Y., Ge, L., Dai, L. et al. Bright and stable perovskite light-emitting diodes in the near-infrared range. Nature 615, 830–835 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05792-4

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