Reversible optical property changes in lead-free perovskites have recently received great interest due to their potential applications in smart windows, sensors, data encryption, and various on-demand devices. However, it is challenging to achieve remarkable color changes in their thin films. Here, methylamine gas (CH3NH2, MA0) induced switchable optical bleaching of bismuth (Bi)-based perovskite films is demonstrated for the first time. By exposure to an MA0 atmosphere, the color of Cs2AgBiBr6 (CABB) films changes from yellow to transparent, and the color of Cs3Bi2I9 (CBI) films changes from dark red to transparent. More interestingly, the underlying reason is found to be the interactions between MA0 and Bi3+ with the formation of an amorphous liquefied transparent intermediate phase, which is different from that of lead-based perovskite systems. Moreover, the generality of this approach is demonstrated with other amine gases, including ethylamine (C2H5NH2, EA0) and butylamine (CH3(CH2)3NH2, BA0), and another compound, Cs3Sb2I9, by observing a similar reversible optical bleaching phenomenon. The potential for the application of CABB and CBI films in switchable smart windows is investigated. This study provides valuable insights into the interactions between amine gases and lead-free perovskites, opening up new possibilities for high-efficiency optoelectronic and stimuli-responsive applications of these emerging Bi-based materials.

Lead-free halide double perovskites (HDPs) have emerged as a new generation of thermochromic materials. However, further materials development and mechanistic understanding are required. Here, a highly stable HDP Cs2NaFeCl6 single crystal is synthesized, and its remarkable and fully reversible thermochromism with a wide color variation from light-yellow to black over a temperature range of 10 to 423 K is investigated. First-principles, density functional theory (DFT)-based calculations indicate that the thermochromism in Cs2NaFeCl6 is an effect of electron–phonon coupling. The temperature sensitivity of the bandgap in Cs2NaFeCl6 is up to 2.52 meVK−1 based on the Varshni equation, which is significantly higher than that of lead halide perovskites and many conventional group-IV, III–V semiconductors. Meanwhile, this material shows excellent environmental, thermal, and thermochromic cycle stability. This work provides valuable insights into HDPs' thermochromism and sheds new light on developing efficient thermochromic materials.

GaAs-based semiconductors are highly attractive for diverse nonlinear photonic applications, owing to their non-centrosymmetric crystal structure and huge nonlinear optical coefficients. Nanostructured semiconductors, for example, nanowires (NWs), offer rich possibilities to tailor nonlinear optical properties and further enhance photonic device performance. In this study, it is demonstrated highly efficient second-harmonic generation in subwavelength wurtzite (WZ) GaAs NWs, reaching 2.5 × 10⁻⁵ W⁻¹, which is about seven times higher than their zincblende counterpart. This enhancement is shown to be predominantly caused by an axial built-in electric field induced by spontaneous polarization in the WZ lattice via electric field-induced second-order nonlinear susceptibility and can be controlled optically and potentially electrically. The findings, therefore, provide an effective strategy for enhancing and manipulating the nonlinear optical response in subwavelength NWs by utilizing lattice engineering.

GaAs/GaNAsBi/GaAs core-multishell nanowires were grown using molecular beam epitaxy on Si(111) substrates. The formation of the 20 nm wide GaNAsBi shell with a regular hexagonal structure was observed. The shell is estimated to contain approximately 1.5% N and 2.6% Bi and has a compressive lattice mismatch of less than 0.2% with GaAs layers. The strain mediation by the introduction of both N and Bi suppresses the crystalline deformation, resulting in the clear formation of the GaNAsBi shell. Thus, we obtained room-temperature photoluminescence with the maximum position at approximately 1300 nm from the GaAs/GaNAsBi/GaAs core-multishell nanowires.

We propose native oxide AlGaO(x)outer protective layer for GaAs/AlGaAs core-multishell nanowires to provide yearly stable stronger optical and electrical confinement within the nanowire core. We prepared core-multishell NWs consisting of GaAs core, Al0.2Ga0.8As multi-layered barrier layer, and amorphous Al(0.9)Ga(0.1)O(x)outer shell, which was obtained simply by growing Al-rich AlGaAs and exposing the NWs to the ambient air. Photoluminescence from the NWs reveals that the Al(0.9)Ga(0.1)O(x)outer shell provides efficient optical confinement and creates a compressive strain in the interior of the NW that enhances and blueshifts the photoluminescence of the GaAs core.