While perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have shown great promise as materials for efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of the blue-emitting perovskites is an impediment to the development of white LEDs of which blue is an essential component. Herein, we report that room temperature postsynthetic treatment of weakly blue-violet-emitting (PLQY 3%) CsPbCl3 NCs with CdCl2 results in an instantaneous enhancement of the PLQY to near-unity without affecting the PL peak position (406 nm) and spectral width. The time-resolved PL and ultrafast transient absorption measurements confirm the removal of nonradiative defect states of the CsPbCl3 NCs in treated sample. The elemental composition and structural data of the treated sample reveal facile doping of Cd2+ into the crystal lattice without affecting the size and shape of the NCs. Extraordinary PLQY, high air stability and photostability and ease of preparation of this Cd-doped CsPbCl3 make it by far the most attractive blue-emitting perovskite for development of efficient blue and white LEDs.

Understanding the nature and dynamics of the photo-induced transients of all-inorganic perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) is key to their exploitation in potential applications. In order to determine the nature of charge carriers, their deactivation pathways and dynamics, the photo-induced transients of CsPbBr, CsPbBrI, CsPbBrI and CsPbI NCs are spectrally and temporally characterized employing a combination of femtosecond transient absorption (TA) and photoluminescence (PL) up-conversion techniques and global analysis of the data. The results provide distinct identities of the excitons and free charge carriers and distinguish the hot charge carriers from the cold ones. The carrier trapping is attributed to the electrons and their dynamics is unaffected in mixed halide perovskites. The excitation energy dependence of the TA dynamics suggests that the trap states are shallow in nature and mainly limited near the band-edge level. In mixed halide perovskites, an increase in the iodine content leads to hole trapping in a short time scale (<5 ps). The insights obtained from this study are likely to be helpful for tuning the photo-response of these substances and their better utilization in light-based applications.

Mn-Doped perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) are a new class of materials offering exciting opportunities to control over their optical and magnetic properties. Herein, we report a series of Mn-doped CsPbCl NCs exhibiting a tunable Mn photoluminescence (PL) band with a PL peak wavelength pushed up to 625 nm and tuned over a range of 40 nm, the largest achieved so far, by only varying the Mn content. The X-band EPR data and Mn PL decay behaviour of the NCs reveal that the exchange interaction between Mn ions is mainly responsible for a large shift of the Mn PL band. Ultrafast pump-probe measurements show that exciton-dopant energy transfer in these NCs is slower (∼50-100 ps) than trapping of the carriers (∼8-10 ps) in the host lattice. The large PL tuning reported here along with the insights into the mechanism of tuning and carrier dynamics are expected to boost the potential of Mn-doped CsPbCl NCs in light-powered devices.

Study of the emission behavior of all-inorganic perovskite nanocrystals CsPbBr3 and CsPbBr2I as a function of the excitation power employing fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and conventional techniques reveals fluorescence blinking in the microsecond time scale and photoinduced emission enhancement. The observation provides insight into the radiative and nonradiative deactivation pathways of these promising substances. Because both blinking and photoactivation processes are intimately linked to the charge separation efficiency and dynamics of the nanocrystals, these key findings are likely to be helpful in realizing the true potential of these substances in photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications.

Studies on ultrafast dynamics of various photo-induced processes in perovskite nanocrystals and their composites, and insights obtained from them are presented in this review.