Dual-Band Emission from Intrinsic and Extrinsic Self-Trapped Excitons in a Zero-Dimensional Copper Halide Cs₃Cu₂Br₅

Zero-dimensional Cs₃Cu₂X₅ (X=Cl, Br, or I), the intensively studied light-emitting materials, generally exhibit single-band emissions from intrinsic self-trapped excitons (STEs), while defect-induced (extrinsic) STEs were considered nonemissive. Herein, we observed a dual-band emission from intrinsic and extrinsic STEs for Cs₃Cu₂Br₅ at low temperature, and their emission mechanisms are elucidated. The intrinsic and extrinsic STEs are trapped from different initial states, with remarkably large trapping depths (>900 meV) evaluated at 50 K, indicating their negligible detrapping rates. In addition, the stronger electron-phonon coupling for extrinsic STE could shift the extrinsic STE band to intersect with the ground state in the configuration coordinate diagram, acting as a nonradiative pathway. This explains the vanishment of extrinsic STE emission at room temperature and the reported low photoluminescence quantum yields (<50%). With growing efforts to obtain multiple-band emitters, our insights into the emission mechanisms of intrinsic and extrinsic STEs provide valuable bases for further material engineering.