Amine‐Free Multi‐Faceted CsPbBr3 Nanocrystals for Complete Suppression of Long‐Lived Dark States

Abstract Conventional amine‐capped perovskite nanocrystals (A‐PNCs) often show microscopic fluctuation (blinking) of photoluminescence (PL) between bright and near‐background (dark) states. The transient dark phases spanning milliseconds (ms) to several seconds timescale typically owe to the non‐radiative (NR) fate of charge carriers in crystal defect states, limiting the PNC's efficiency in optoelectronics. A PL study of a novel trioctylphosphine (TOP) capped rhombic cuboctahedron‐shaped amine‐free (AF) PNC is presented, demonstrating their fascinating nonblinking nature. While oleylamine‐capped hexahedron A‐PNCs as a reference system show long dark states, their population is completely suppressed in ≈90% of AF‐PNCs with random large‐amplitude PL fluctuations several times above the background. The PL trajectories of AF‐PNCs primarily comprise constant power spectral densities (PSDs) which are unprecedented and deviate from power‐law distribution as observed for A‐PNCs and most of the other blinking nanocrystals. Such signature of PSDs and frame‐by‐frame intensity jump analysis indicate a fast (<<ms) timescale charge‐carrier dynamics governing the PL emission of AF‐PNCs, likely involving short‐lived metastable states. Besides, long‐term stability and suppressed dark phases in ≈70% AF‐PNCs even 90 days after the synthesis is noteworthy. Altogether the study provides exceptional optical characteristics of photostable amine‐free PNCs which would be attractive to exploit in commercial display applications.