Marco Anni

Temperature dependence of ASE and PL of an MAPbBr ₃ thin film in the 20–300 K range during cooling, highlighting the role of thermally activated non-radiative processes and the orthorhombic–tetragonal and tetragonal–cubic phase transitions.

Carbon dots (CDs) derived from renewable biomass are emerging as sustainable alternatives to traditional nanomaterials for applications in bioimaging, sensing, and photonics. In this study, we reported a one-step synthesis of photoluminescent CDs from Laurus nobilis leaves particularly spread in the Mediterranean area. The resulting nanoparticles (NPs) exhibited average diameters of 3–5 nm and high colloidal stability in water. Structural analysis by X-Rays Diffraction revealed the presence of amorphous graphitic domains, while infrared spectroscopy confirmed oxygenated functional groups on the CD surface. Spectrofluorimetric analysis showed excitation-dependent blue–green emission with a maximum at 490 nm that can be applied also as label agents for cells. The environmental sustainability of the synthetic procedure was evaluated through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), highlighting that the current impacts were primarily associated with electricity consumption, due to the laboratory-scale nature of the process. These impacts are expected to decrease significantly with future scale-up and process optimization.

Carbon dots (CDs) derived from renewable biomass are emerging as sustainable alternatives to traditional nanomaterials for applications in bioimaging, sensing, and photonics. In this study, we report a one-step hydrothermal synthesis of photoluminescent CDs from Laurus nobilis leaves particularly spread in the Mediterranean area. The resulting nanoparticles exhibited average diameters of 3–5 nm and high colloidal stability in water. Structural analysis by XRD revealed the presence of amorphous graphitic domains, while FTIR spectroscopy confirmed oxygenated functional groups on the CD surface. Spectrofluorimetric analysis showed excitation-dependent blue–green emission with a maximum at 490 nm that can be applied also as label agents for cells. The environmental sustainability of the synthesis was evaluated through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), highlighting that the current impacts are primarily associated with electricity consumption, due to the laboratory-scale nature of the process. These impacts are expected to decrease significantly with future scale-up and process optimization.

With their exceptional optoelectronic properties, CsPbBr₃ perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) are promising materials for light‐emitting devices. Elucidating their stimulated emission mechanisms is fundamental to grasp the limitations hindering their use as electrically pumped lasers. In particular, two questions remain open: why the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) band is significantly shifted from the fluorescence one, and why the former seems to suddenly emerge from, and coexist with, the latter. Here, these questions are addressed through experimental ASE measurements, combined with numerical simulations and a comprehensive assessment of the performance of different analytical expressions used in the literature to retrieve the optical gain from these experiments. This multi‐facet study shows that the ASE behavior in CsPbBr₃ NCs thin films stems from four distinctive processes: reabsorption due to a large overlap between the absorption and fluorescence spectra, a strong contribution of excited state absorption within the fluorescence window, the excitation of differently polarized waveguide modes, and the coexistence of short‐ and long‐lived localized excitons. The results in this work delineate the best practices to analyze the optical gain in perovskite samples, help to understand their ASE mechanisms, and provide insights to boost their lasing efficiency.

The development of organic molecules showing high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) in solid state is a fundamental step for the implementation of efficient light emitting devices. In this work the origin of the high PLQY of two trimers and two pentamers having one central thiophene-S,S-dioxide unit and two and four lateral thiophene or phenyl groups, respectively, is investigated by temperature dependent photoluminescence and time resolved photoluminescence measurements. The experimental results demonstrate that the molecules with lateral phenyl rings show higher PLQY due to a weaker coupling with intramolecular vibrations—related to variations in the radiative and non-radiative decay rates—and indicate different molecular rigidity as the main factors affecting the PLQY of this class of molecules.

Fully inorganic perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have been widely investigated due to their potential as very interesting active materials for several types of photonic and optoelectronic devices. Despite several experiments designed to investigate the basic emission properties of these NCs, a clear and complete understanding of their photophysics is still missing. In this work, temperature‐dependent steady state and time‐resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements are used to investigate the nature of the emitting states, the origin of the excitation relaxation dynamics and the effects of aging upon long exposure to wet air for thin films of CsPbBr₃ NCs prepared by coprecipitation. It is demonstrated that both free excitons and localized excitons contribute to the NC emission and that electron traps within the conduction band, ≈14 meV and ≈80 meV above the band edge, determine thermal emission quenching. Moreover, it is shown that the non‐exponential PL relaxation dynamics are due to short‐range energy migration within a disordered distribution of localized states between 10 and 100 K, with activation of a second, long‐range diffusion process at higher temperatures. It is also demonstrated that aging determines the variations in defect levels, exciton‐phonon coupling and exciton relaxation dynamics. The results substantially improve the current understanding of the basic photophysics of CsPbBr₃ NC films and of the aging effects and are expected to provide a useful guide for future characterization of other similar materials.

Due to their high optical efficiency, low-cost fabrication and wide variety in composition and bandgap, halide perovskites are recognized nowadays as real contenders for the development of the next generation of optoelectronic devices, which, among others, often require high quality over large areas which is readily attainable by vacuum deposition. Here, we report the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) properties of two CsPbBr₃ films obtained by single-step RF-magnetron sputtering from a target containing precursors with variable compositions. Both the samples show ASE over a broad range of temperatures from 10 K up to 270 K. The ASE threshold results strongly temperature dependent, with the best performance occurring at about 50 K (down to 100 µJ/cm²), whereas at higher temperatures, there is evidence of thermally induced optical quenching. The observed temperature dependence is consistent with exciton detrapping up to about 50 K. At higher temperatures, progressive free exciton dissociation favors higher carrier mobility and increases trapping at defect states with consequent emission reduction and increased thresholds. The reported results open the way for effective large-area, high quality, organic solution-free deposited perovskite thin films for optoelectronic applications, with a remarkable capability to finely tune their physical properties.

Nowadays, the search for novel active materials for laser devices is proceeding faster and faster thanks to the development of innovative materials able to combine excellent stimulated emission properties with low-cost synthesis and processing techniques. In this context, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) properties are typically investigated to characterize the potentiality of a novel material for lasers, and a low ASE threshold is used as the key parameter to select the best candidate. However, several different methods are currently used to define the ASE threshold, hindering meaningful comparisons among various materials. In this work, we quantitatively investigate the ASE threshold dependence on the method used to determine it in thin films of dye-polymer blends and lead halide perovskites. We observe a systematic ASE threshold dependence on the method for all the different tested materials, and demonstrate that the best method choice depends on the kind of information one wants to extract. In particular, the methods that provide the lowest ASE threshold values are able to detect the excitation regime of early-stage ASE, whereas methods that are mostly spread in the literature return higher thresholds, detecting the excitation regime in which ASE becomes the dominant process in the sample emission. Finally, we propose a standard procedure to properly characterize the ASE threshold, in order to allow comparisons between different materials.