Tunable photoluminescence in Sb3+-doped zero-dimensional hybrid metal halides with intrinsic and extrinsic self-trapped excitons

Dopants in luminescent metal halides provide an alternative way for photoluminescence tuning towards versatile optical applications. Here we report a trivalent antimony (Sb3+)-doped single crystalline 0D metal halide with the composition of (C9NH20)(9)[Pb3Cl11](ZnCl4)(2):Sb3+. This compound possessed the coexistence of two emission centers including intrinsic and extrinsic self-trapped excitons (STEs), which are ascribed to [Pb3Cl11](5-) clusters and triplet STEs formed by the P-3(1)-S-1(0) transition of Sb3+. By regulating the Sb3+ concentration, the emission can be tuned from green to yellow and finally to orange, which would help to develop optically pumped white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) with different photometric characteristics. Moreover, this dopant-induced extrinsic STE approach presents a new direction towards tuning the luminescence properties of 0D metal halides, and may find application in environmentally-friendly, high-performance metal halide light emitters.