High optical nonlinearity in low-dimensional halide perovskite polycrystalline films.

The nonlinear optical properties of low-dimensional polycrystalline halide perovskite films consisting of ethylammonium (EA) and butylammonium (BA) cations are investigated using Z-scan technique. Across the band-edge, two-dimensional (BA)2PbI4 exhibits a transition from saturable absorption (SA) to reverse-SA and its nonlinear absorption and nonlinear refractive index are much smaller than those of bulk counterparts. Meanwhile, EAPbI3 with one-dimensionality of the inorganic structure shows the SA behavior both above and below band-edge and the estimated nonlinear optical parameters of polycrystalline EAPbI3 are comparable to those of single-crystalline ones, attributed to high dielectric contrast between the inorganic and organic elements in one-dimensional structures.