Layered
quaternary metal thio/selenophosphates exhibit composition-dependent
physical properties and have valuable applications in optoelectronic
devices. Exploring their optical properties and photoexcited carrier
dynamics is a prerequisite for their device design. Here, the ultrafast
photocarrier dynamics and nonlinear absorption of a bulk AgInP2S6 crystal, a new member of this material family,
are investigated by employing photoluminescence, time-resolved transient
optical spectroscopies, and intensity-dependent transmission. The
AgInP2S6 exhibits defect-assisted photoluminescence
with more effective excitation under defect-state absorption and two-photon
absorption at 800 nm. After initial intraband relaxation, the interband-excited
carriers naturally accumulate at the conduction band minimum or valance
band maximum, and then most of the nonequilibrium carriers relax via
interband nonradiative recombination while the rest are transferred
to the defect bands. Following that, the nonequilibrium carriers in
the defect bands will first relax to the bottoms of the defect bands
and finally recombine there. As compared with its analogue CuInP2S6, the substitution of Cu with Ag results in the
variation of the two-photon absorption coefficient as well as the
increase in carrier relaxation times due to the accompanying defect
change. These findings provide microscopic insights into the optical
response process of AgInP2S6 and valuable references
for developing its optoelectronic devices.