Kinetically Arrested Twin-Domain State in Formamidinium Lead Iodide

Abstract

Hybrid lead halide perovskites exhibit a delicate interplay between average crystallographic symmetry, local structural disorder and A-site orientational dynamics, giving rise to unusual vibrational and electronic behaviour. Here, we combine large-scale molecular dynamics with a density-functional-theory-accurate machine learning force field to resolve the structural dynamics of perovskites across mesoscopic length scales. In formamidinium lead iodide FAPbI${}_3$, we identify a high-temperature $\alpha$ phase with dynamic local order and correlated tilt nanodomains, an ordered $\gamma$ phase with long-range $a^{+}{a}^{+}{a}^{+}$ tilt coherence, and, below $\sim$100 K, a history-dependent ${\gamma }^{\prime }$ state consisting of locally $\gamma$-like nanoscale regions separated by sharp twin-like boundaries. This low-temperature disordered state is not a distinct bulk polymorph, but a kinetically arrested metastable twin-domain network selected by the interplay between shallow tilt energetics and slowing FA reorientation. This picture provides a consistent explanation for the low-temperature diffuse scattering features observed experimentally, and accounts for the broadened low-energy vibrational response found in the simulations. Furthermore, this unique structural landscape imprints a spatially varying electronic disorder that directly impacts macroscopic optoelectronic properties, evidenced by an anomalous increase in the Urbach energy at low temperatures. Our results reconcile the debated low-temperature behaviour of FAPbI${}_3$ in terms of competition between ordered and arrested structural states, and show more broadly that in hybrid perovskites the organic cation can actively select the macroscopic structural and electronic response through its reorientation kinetics, placing thermal history on equal footing with composition as a determinant of structural and optoelectronic properties.

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