Abstract
Organometal halide perovskites can be processed from solutions at low temperatures to form crystalline direct-bandgap semiconductors with promising optoelectronic properties1,2,3,4,5. However, the efficiency of their electroluminescence is limited by non-radiative recombination, which is associated with defects and leakage current due to incomplete surface coverage6,7,8,9. Here we demonstrate a solution-processed perovskite light-emitting diode (LED) based on self-organized multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with excellent film morphologies. The MQW-based LED exhibits a very high external quantum efficiency of up to 11.7%, good stability and exceptional high-power performance with an energy conversion efficiency of 5.5% at a current density of 100 mA cm−2. This outstanding performance arises because the lower bandgap regions that generate electroluminescence are effectively confined by perovskite MQWs with higher energy gaps, resulting in very efficient radiative decay. Surprisingly, there is no evidence that the large interfacial areas between different bandgap regions cause luminescence quenching.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Xing, G. et al. Low-temperature solution-processed wavelength-tunable perovskites for lasing. Nat. Mater. 13, 476–480 (2014).
Deschler, F. et al. High photoluminescence efficiency and optically pumped lasing in solution-processed mixed halide perovskite semiconductors. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 1421–1426 (2014).
Stranks, S. D. et al. Electron-hole diffusion lengths exceeding 1 micrometer in an organometal trihalide perovskite absorber. Science 342, 341–344 (2013).
Burschka, J. et al. Sequential deposition as a route to high-performance perovskite-sensitized solar cells. Nature 499, 316–319 (2013).
Yang, W. S. et al. High-performance photovoltaic perovskite layers fabricated through intramolecular exchange. Science 348, 1234–1237 (2015).
Hong, X., Ishihara, T. & Nurmikko, A. V. Dielectric confinement effect on excitons in PbI4-based layered semiconductors. Phys. Rev. B 45, 6961–6964 (1992).
Gauthron, K. et al. Optical spectroscopy of two-dimensional layered (C6H5C2H4-NH3)2-PbI4 perovskite. Opt. Express 18, 5912–5919 (2010).
Tan, Z.-K. et al. Bright light-emitting diodes based on organometal halide perovskite. Nat. Nanotech. 9, 687–692 (2014).
Wang, J. et al. Interfacial control toward efficient and low-voltage perovskite light-emitting diodes. Adv. Mater. 27, 2311–2316 (2015).
Cho, H. et al. Overcoming the electroluminescence efficiency limitations of perovskite light-emitting diodes. Science 350, 1222–1225 (2015).
Li, X. et al. Improved performance and stability of perovskite solar cells by crystal crosslinking with alkylphosphonic acid ω-ammonium chlorides. Nat. Chem. 7, 703–711 (2015).
Calabrese, J. et al. Preparation and characterization of layered lead halide compounds. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 113, 2328–2330 (1991).
Mitzi, D. B., Chondroudis, K. & Kagan, C. R. Organic–inorganic electronics. IBM J. Res. Dev. 45, 29–45 (2001).
Tyagi, P., Arveson, S. M. & Tisdale, W. A. Colloidal organohalide perovskite nanoplatelets exhibiting quantum confinement. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 6, 1911–1916 (2015).
Ishihara, T. Optical-properties of PbI-based perovskite structures. J. Lumin. 60-61, 269–274 (1994).
Hong, X., Ishihara, T. & Nurmikko, A. V. Photoconductivity and electroluminescence in lead iodide based natural quantum-well structures. Solid State Commun. 84, 657–661 (1992).
Era, M., Morimoto, S., Tsutsui, T. & Saito, S. Organic–inorganic heterostructure electroluminescent device using a layered perovskite semiconductor (C6H5C2H4NH3)2PbI4 . Appl. Phys. Lett. 65, 676–678 (1994).
Chondroudis, K. & Mitzi, D. B. Electroluminescence from an organic–inorganic perovskite incorporating a quaterthiophene dye within lead halide perovskite layers. Chem. Mater. 11, 3028–3030 (1999).
Yuan, M . et al. Perovskite energy funnels for efficient light-emitting diodes. Nat. Nanotech. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.110 (2016).
Tanaka, K. & Kondo, T. Bandgap and exciton binding energies in lead-iodide-based natural quantum-well crystals. Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 4, 599–604 (2003).
Smith, I. C., Hoke, E. T., Solis-Ibarra, D., McGehee, M. D. & Karunadasa, H. I. A layered hybrid perovskite solar-cell absorber with enhanced moisture stability. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 11232–11235 (2014).
Weller, M. T., Weber, O. J., Frost, J. M. & Walsh, A. Cubic perovskite structure of black formamidinium lead iodide, α-[HC(NH2)2]PbI3, at 298 K. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 6, 3209–3212 (2015).
Jeon, N. J. et al. Compositional engineering of perovskite materials for high-performance solar cells. Nature 517, 476–480 (2015).
Graham, K. R. et al. Extended conjugation platinum(II) porphyrins for use in near-infrared emitting organic light emitting diodes. Chem. Mater. 23, 5305–5312 (2011).
Helander, M. G. et al. Chlorinated indium tin oxide electrodes with high work function for organic device compatibility. Science 332, 944–947 (2011).
Lai, C.-C. et al. m-indolocarbazole derivative as a universal host material for RGB and white phosphorescent OLEDs. Adv. Funct. Mater. 25, 5548–5556 (2015).
Zhou, Y. et al. A universal method to produce low–work function electrodes for organic electronics. Science 336, 327–332 (2012).
Dai, X. et al. Solution-processed, high-performance light-emitting diodes based on quantum dots. Nature 515, 96–99 (2014).
Forrest, S. R., Bradley, D. D. C. & Thompson, M. E. Measuring the efficiency of organic light-emitting devices. Adv. Mater. 15, 1043–1048 (2003).
De Mello, J. C., Wittmann, H. F. & Friend, R. H. An improved experimental determination of external photoluminescence quantum efficiency. Adv. Mater. 9, 230–232 (1997).
Acknowledgements
This work is financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China- Fundamental Studies of Perovskite Solar Cells (2015CB932200), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK20131413, BK20140952 and BM2012010), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11474164, 51522209, 91433204, 61405091 and 11474249), the National 973 Program of China (2015CB654901), the Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professor programme, the Synergetic Innovation Center for Organic Electronics and Information Displays, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2015FZA3005), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linköping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU no. 2009-00971), the Swedish Research Council (VR, 330-2014-6433), and the European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (691210 and INCA 600398). We thank H. Li for assistance with the AFM measurements, C. Wang for assistance with the UV–vis absorbance measurements, H. He & B. Su for assistance with the PLE and TCSPC measurements and X. Liang for the UPS measurements. We thank P. Fowler for proofreading and X. Liu for helpful discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
J.W. had the idea for and designed the experiments. J.W. and W.H. supervised the work. L.C., R.G., N.W. and S.Z. carried out the device fabrication and characterizations. Y.M., Y.S. and Y.C. conducted the optical measurements. W.Z. set up the testing systems and took part in the optical measurements. C.Y. and Y.C. synthesized the NMAI/NMABr and measured AFM. R.Y., Q.G., Y.K., M.Y., D.D. and L.Y. participated in the device fabrication and characterizations. G.X. measured the transient absorption. Y.L., Q.D., H.T, C.J., Y.J. and Y.W. carried out the HRTEM and STEM characterizations. J.W., N.W. and F.G. wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Y.J., R.H.F. and W.H. participated in data analysis and provided major revisions. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary information
Supplementary information (PDF 1091 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, N., Cheng, L., Ge, R. et al. Perovskite light-emitting diodes based on solution-processed self-organized multiple quantum wells. Nature Photon 10, 699–704 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.185
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.185
This article is cited by
-
Spin coating epitaxial heterodimensional tin perovskites for light-emitting diodes
Nature Nanotechnology (2024)
-
Efficient blue electroluminescence from reduced-dimensional perovskites
Nature Photonics (2024)
-
Enhancing Performance of Perovskite Nanocrystal Light-Emitting Diodes with Perfluorinated Ionomer and PEDOT:PSS
Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials (2024)
-
Metal Halide Perovskite for next-generation optoelectronics: progresses and prospects
eLight (2023)
-
Thickness control of organic semiconductor-incorporated perovskites
Nature Chemistry (2023)