Review: Solid-state physics of halide perovskites

Abstract

Halide perovskite solar cells presented a unique opportunity to apply modern computational materials science techniques to an (initially) poorly understood new material. In this review, we recount the key understanding developed during the last five years, through a narrative review of research progress. The central enigma of the material is how it can be so defective, and yet work so well as a photovoltaic. The physical properties of the material were understood through molecular and lattice dynamic calculations, revealing the material to show large dynamic responses on a wide range of time scales. Longer length scales in the material was simulated with effective classical potentials, showing that complex domains can be generated by the interacting molecular dipoles, generating structured features in the electrostatic potential of the lattice. Relativistic electronic structure reveals unique features in the bands, which may explain observed slow recombination, and could be used in high efficiency photovoltaics. The large dielectric response of the lattice leads to a strong drive for the formation of polarons, some device physics of which are discussed. These polarons offer a possible explanation for the observed slow cooling of photoexcitations in the material.

arXiv comment10 pages

References in corpus (16)

• Atomistic origins of high-performance in hybrid halide perovskite solar cells
• Relativistic quasiparticle self-consistent electronic structure of hybrid halide perovskite photovoltaic absorbers
• Lattice dynamics and vibrational spectra of the orthorhombic, tetragonal and cubic phases of methylammonium lead iodide
• Molecular ferroelectric contributions to anomalous hysteresis in hybrid perovskite solar cells
• What is moving in hybrid halide perovskite solar cells?
• Ferroelectric Materials for Solar Energy Conversion: Photoferroics Revisited
• Giant Rashba Splitting in CH3NH3PbBr3 Organic-Inorganic Perovskite
• Direct Observation of Dynamic Symmetry Breaking above Room Temperature in Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite
• Calculating polaron mobility in halide perovskites
• Relativistic origin of slow electron-hole recombination in hybrid halide perovskite solar cells
• Phonon anharmonicity, lifetimes and thermal transport in CH${}_3$NH${}_3$PbI${}_3$ from many-body perturbation theory
• Acoustic Phonon Lifetimes Limit Thermal Transport in Methylammonium Lead Iodide
• Carrier Lifetimes and Polaronic Mass Enhancement in the Hybrid Halide Perovskite CH${}_3$NH${}_3$PbI${}_3$ from Multiphonon Fröhlich Coupling
• Lattice dynamics and the nature of structural transitions in organolead halide perovskites
• Multi-scale model for disordered hybrid perovskites: the concept of organic cation pair modes
• A photon ratchet route to high-efficiency hybrid halide perovskite intermediate band solar cells