Pressure-Induced Emission (PIE) of One-Dimensional Organic Tin Bromide Perovskites

Low-dimensional halide perovskites easily suffer from the structural distortion related to significant quantum confinement effects. Organic tin bromide perovskite C4N2H14SnBr4 is a unique one-dimensional (1D) structure in which the edge sharing octahedral tin bromide chains [SnBr42–]∞ are embraced by the organic cations C4N2H142+ to form the bulk assembly of core–shell quantum wires. Some unusual phenomena under high pressure are accordingly expected. Here, an intriguing pressure-induced emission (PIE) in C4N2H14SnBr4 was successfully achieved by means of a diamond anvil cell. The observed PIE is greatly associated with the large distortion of [SnBr6]4– octahedral motifs resulting from a structural phase transition, which can be corroborated by in situ high-pressure photoluminescence, absorption, and angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction spectra. The distorted [SnBr6]4– octahedra would accordingly facilitate the radiative recombination of self-trapped excitons (STEs) by lifting the activation energy of detrapping of self-trapped states. First-principles calculations indicate that the enhanced transition dipole moment and the increased binding energy of STEs are highly responsible for the remarkable PIE. This work will improve the potential applications in the fields of pressure sensors, trademark security, and information storage.