@phdthesis{Armer2023,
  author    = {Armer, Melina Brigitte Melanie},
  title     = {High-Quality Lead-Free Double Perovskite Single Crystals and their Optical Properties},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-32750},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-327503},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {The presented thesis deals with the investigation of the characteristic physical properties of lead-free double perovskites. For this purpose lead-free double perovskite single crystals were grown from solution. In order to assess the influence of growth temperature on tail states in the material, the crystals were studied using Photoluminescence Excitation (PLE) and Transmission measurements. Additionally, lead-free double perovskite solar cells and thin films were investigated to address the correlation of precursor stoichiometry and solar cell efficiency. In a last step a new earth abundant lead-free double perovskite was introduced and its physical properties were studied by photoluminescene and absorptance. Like this it was possible to assess the suitability of this material for solar cell applications in the future.},
  subject      = {Perowskit},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Kudriashova2019,
  author    = {Kudriashova, Liudmila},
  title     = {Photoluminescence Reveals Charge Carrier Recombination in Organic and Hybrid Semiconductors},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-19343},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-193437},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {In this work, we elucidated recombination kinetics in organic and hybrid semiconductors by steady-state and time-resolved PL spectroscopy. Using these simple and very flexible experimental techniques, we probed the infrared emission from recombining free charge carriers in metal-halide perovskites, as well as the deep blue luminescence from intramolecular charge-transfer states in novel OLED emitters. We showed that similar state diagrams and kinetic models accurately describe the dynamics of excited species in these very different material systems. In Chapters 4 and 5, we focused on lead iodide perovskites (MAPI and FAPI), whose comparatively developed deposition techniques suited the systematic material research. In MAPI, we harnessed the anomalous dependence of transient PL on the laser repetition rate in order to investigate the role of interfaces with the commonly used charge-selective layers: PC60BM, spiro-MeOTAD, and P3HT. The film was deposited on a large precut substrate and separated into several parts, which were then covered with the charge-selective layers. Thereby, the same bulk perovskite structure was maintained for all samples. Consequently, we were able to isolate interface-affected and bulk carrier recombination. The first one dominated the fast component of PL decay up to 300 ns, whereas the last was assigned to the remaining slow component. The laser repetition rate significantly prolonged PL decay in MAPI with additional interfaces while shortening the charge carrier lifetime in the pristine film. We qualitatively explained this effect by a kinetic model that included radiative electron-hole recombination and nonradiative trap-assisted recombination. All in all, we showed that the apparent PL lifetime in MAPI is to large extend defined by the laser repetition rate and by the adjacent interfaces. Further, we studied photon recycling in MAPI and FAPI. We monitored how the microscopic PL transforms while propagating through the thin perovskite film. The emission was recorded within 5orders of magnitude in intensity up to 70μm away from the excitation spot. The Beer-Lambert law previously failed to describe the complex interplay of the intrinsic PL spectrum and the additional red-shifted peak. Therefore, we developed a general numerical model that accounts for self-absorption and diffusion of the secondary charge carriers. A simulation based on this model showed excellent agreement with the experimental spatially resolved PL maps. The proposed model can be applied to any perovskite film, because it uses easily measurable intrinsic PL spectrum and macroscopic absorption coefficient as seeding parameters. In Chapter 6, we conducted an extensive photophysical study of a novel compact deep blue OLED emitter, SBABz4, containing spiro-biacridine and benzonitrile units. We also considered its single-donor monomer counterpart, DMABz4, in order to highlight the structure-property relationships. Both compounds exhibited thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), which was independently proven by oxygen quenching and temperature-dependent transient PL measurements. The spiro-linkage in the double-donor core of SBABz4 rendered its luminescence pure blue compared to the blue-green emission from the single-donor DMABz4. Thus, the core-donor provided desirable color tuning in the deep blue region, as opposed to the common TADF molecular design with core-acceptor. Using PL lifetimes and efficiencies, we predicted EQEmax = 7.1\% for SBABz4-based OLED, whereas a real test device showed EQEmax = 6.8\%. Transient PL was recorded from the solutions and solid films in the unprecedentedly broad dynamic range covering up to 6orders of magnitude in time and 8orders of magnitude in intensity. The stretched exponent was shown to fit the transient PL in the films very well, whereas PL decay in dilute solution was found purely exponential. When the emitter was embedded in the host matrix that prevented aggregation, its TADF properties were superior in comparison with the pure SBABz4 film. Finally, using temperature-dependent transient PL data, we calculated the TADF activation energy of 70 meV. To sum up, this Thesis contributes to the two fascinating topics of the last decade's material research: perovskite absorbers for photovoltaics and TADF emitters for OLEDs. We were lucky to work with the emerging systems and tailor for them new models out of the well-known physical concepts. This was both exciting and challenging. In the end, science of novel materials is always a mess. We hope that we brought there a bit of clarity and light.},
  subject      = {Time-resolved photoluminescence},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Bieker2015,
  author    = {Bieker, Steffen},
  title     = {Time and Spatially Resolved Photoluminescence Spectroscopy of Hot Excitons in Gallium Arsenide},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-134419},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The present thesis investigates the impact of hot exciton effects on the low-temperature time and spatially resolved photoluminescence (PL) response of free excitons in high-purity gallium arsenide (GaAs). The work at hand extends available studies of hot carrier effects, which in bulk GaAs have up to now focused on hot electron populations. In crucial distinction from previous work, we extensively study the free exciton second LO-phonon replica. The benefit of this approach is twofold. First, the two LO phonon-assisted radiative recombination allows to circumvent the inherent interpretation ambiguities of the previously investigated free exciton zero-phonon line. Second, the recombination line shape of the second LO-phonon replica provides direct experimental access to the exciton temperature, thereby enabling the quantitative assessment of hot exciton effects. In the first part of the thesis, we address the influence of transient cooling on the time evolution of an initially hot photocarrier ensemble. To this end, we investigate time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) signals detected on the free exciton second LO-phonon replica. Settling a long-standing question, we show by comparison with TRPL transients of the free exciton zero-phonon line that the slow free exciton photoluminescence rise following pulsed optical excitation is dominated by the slow buildup of a free exciton population and not by the relaxation of large K-vector excitons to the Brillouin zone center. To establish a quantitative picture of the delayed photoluminescence onset, we determine the cooling dynamics of the initially hot photocarrier cloud from a time-resolved line shape analysis of the second LO-phonon replica. We demonstrate that the Saha equation, which fundamentally describes the thermodynamic population balance between free excitons and the uncorrelated electron-hole plasma, directly translates the experimentally derived cooling curves into the time-dependent conversion of unbound electron-hole pairs into free excitons. In the second part of the thesis, we establish the impact of hot exciton effects on low-temperature spatially resolved photoluminescence (SRPL) studies. Such experiments are widely used to investigate charge carrier and free exciton diffusion in semiconductors and semiconductor nanostructures. By SRPL spectroscopy of the second LO-phonon replica, we show that above-band gap focused laser excitation inevitably causes local heating in the carrier system, which crucially affects the diffusive expansion of a locally excited exciton packet. Undistorted free exciton diffusion profiles, which are correctly described by the commonly used formulation of the photocarrier diffusion equation, are only observed in the absence of spatial temperature gradients. At low sample temperatures, the reliable determination of free exciton diffusion coefficients from both continuous-wave and time-resolved SRPL spectroscopy requires strictly resonant optical excitation. Using resonant laser excitation, we observe the dimensional crossover of free exciton diffusion in etched wire structures of a thin, effectively two-dimensional GaAs epilayer. When the lateral wire width falls below the diffusion length, the sample geometry becomes effectively one-dimensional. The exciton diffusion profile along the wire stripe is then consistently reproduced by the steady-state solution to the one-dimensional diffusion equation. Finally, we demonstrate the formation of macroscopic free and bound exciton photoluminescence rings in bulk GaAs around a focused laser excitation spot. Both ring formation effects are due to pump-induced local heating in the exciton system. For a quantitative assessment of the mechanism underlying the free exciton ring formation, we directly determine the exciton temperature gradient from a spatially resolved line shape analysis of the free exciton second LO-phonon replica. We demonstrate that a pump-induced hot spot locally modifies the thermodynamic population balance between free excitons and unbound electron-hole pairs described by the Saha equation, which naturally explains the emergence of macroscopic free exciton ring structures. In summary, we demonstrate that quantitative consideration of hot exciton effects provides a coherent picture both of the time-domain free exciton luminescence kinetics and of the distinct spatially resolved photoluminescence patterns developing under the influence of spatial photocarrier diffusion.},
  subject      = {Exziton},
  language  = {en}
}