Unlocking Full-Spectrum Brilliance: Dimensional Regulation in Lead-Free Metal Halides for Superior Photoluminescence

Abstract

Lead-free metal halides with tunable structures have emerged as a new class of optoelectronic materials. The arrangement of metal halide polyhedra defines their structural dimensionality and serves as a key factor influencing their optical properties. To investigate this, we synthesized four different antimony (Sb)-doped indium (In)-based metal halides, all of which possess zero-dimensional (0D) electronic structures but exhibit 3D, 2D, 1D, and 0D structural dimensionality at the molecular level. With a decreasing of structural dimensionality, their self-trapped exciton (STE) emission shows a red shift with peak position from 496 to 663 nm. We revealed that the red shift is caused by increased distortion of [SbCl₆]^3– octahedra as the structural dimensionality decreases, leading to lowered energy levels of STE and a corresponding red shift. The tunable STE emission makes these metal halides promising for anticounterfeiting and white LED applications. These findings provide a new strategy for tuning STE emission in lead-free metal halides.