• Irkhina, A.; Levcenko, S.; Xie, L.; Leifer, K.; Unold, T.: Radiative emission from Cu2ZnSnS4/ZnSn core/shell nanocrystals. Journal of Materials Chemistry C 7 (2019), p. 6129-6133

10.1039/c9tc00904c
Open Access Version

Abstract:
Kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanocrystals so far have been found to luminesce neither at room temperature nor at low temperature. Here a core–shell architecture for kesterite CZTS nanocrystals is demonstrated by applying a ZnSn-alloy shell overcoating approach. These CZTS/ZnSn nanocrystals show luminescence emission at 1.05 eV, which is red-shifted by about 0.4 eV from the absorption onset and is attributed to a radiative transition involving a deep defect. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurements within a range of 20–200 K indicate the presence of a competing nonradiative channel with an activation energy of 50–60 meV.