Quantum and Dielectric Confinement Effects in Lower-Dimensional Hybrid Perovskite Semiconductors

Hybrid halide perovskites are now superstar materials leading the field of low-cost thin film photovoltaics technologies. Following the surge for more efficient and stable 3D bulk alloys, multilayered halide perovskites and colloidal perovskite nanostructures appeared in 2016 as viable alternative solutions to this challenge, largely exceeding the original proof of concept made in 2009 and 2014, respectively. This triggered renewed interest in lower-dimensional hybrid halide perovskites and at the same time increasingly more numerous and differentiated applications. The present paper is a review of the past and present literature on both colloidal nanostructures and multilayered compounds, emphasizing that availability of accurate structural information is of dramatic importance to reach a fair understanding of quantum and dielectric confinement effects. Layered halide perovskites occupy a special place in the history of halide perovskites, with a large number of seminal papers in the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years, the rationalization of structure–properties relationship has greatly benefited from new theoretical approaches dedicated to their electronic structures and optoelectronic properties, as well as a growing number of contributions based on modern experimental techniques. This is a necessary step to provide in-depth tools to decipher their extensive chemical engineering possibilities which surpass the ones of their 3D bulk counterparts. Comparisons to classical semiconductor nanostructures and 2D van der Waals heterostructures are also stressed. Since 2015, colloidal nanostructures have undergone a quick development for applications based on light emission. Although intensively studied in the last two years by various spectroscopy techniques, the description of quantum and dielectric confinement effects on their optoelectronic properties is still in its infancy.