Observation of Internal Photoinduced Electron and Hole Separation in Hybrid Two-Dimentional Perovskite Films

Two-dimensional (2D) organolead halide perovskites are promising for various optoelectronic applications. Here we report a unique spontaneous charge (electron/hole) separation property in multilayered (BA)2(MA) n−1Pb n I3n+1 (BA = CH3(CH2)3NH3 +, MA = CH3NH3 +) 2D perovskite films by studying the charge carrier dynamics using ultrafast transient absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Surprisingly, the 2D perovskite films, although nominally prepared as “n = 4”, are found to be mixture of multiple perovskite phases, with n = 2, 3, 4 and ≈ ∞, that naturally align in the order of n along the direction perpendicular to the substrate. Driven by the band alignment between 2D perovskites phases, we observe consecutive photoinduced electron transfer from small-n to large-n phases and hole transfer in the opposite direction on hundreds of picoseconds inside the 2D film of ∼358 nm thickness. This internal charge transfer efficiently separates electrons and holes to the upper and bottom surfaces of the films, which is a unique property beneficial for applications in photovoltaics and other optoelectronics devices.