This talk will introduce a relatively less known family of crystalline, organic-inorganic hybrid materials based on II-VI compounds [1,2], such as ZnTe(C₂N₂H₈)_0.5. On the one hand, they exhibit a number of unusual properties, such as greatly enhanced optical absorption and exciton binding energy compared to the II-VI counterpart [3], favorable band structures for p-type transparent conductive materials [3], zero-thermal expansion [4], peculiar elastic properties [2]. On the other hand, because of the exceptionally high level of crystallinity, they reveal a novel way to obtain defect-free heterostructures with perfect interfaces [5]; and because of their unprecedent long-term stability (over 15 years under ambient conditions), they can uniquely serve as prototype systems to understand the intrinsic and extrinsic degradation mechanisms [5,6]. Comparison with hybrid halide perovskites will be offered.

[1] Huang et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 7049 (2003).

[2] Zhang, J. Lumin. 248, 118936 (2022).

[3] Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.96, 026405 (2006).

[4]Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 215901 (2007).

[5] Ye et al., ACS Nano 15, 10565 (2021).

[6]Ye et al., Small (2023).