Research Highlight

Light-Ferroic Interactions in High-Performance Photovoltaic Materials

Light-Ferroic Interactions in High-Performance Photovoltaic Materials
It is found that, due to photocarrier-lattice interaction, the ferroelastic twin domains with chemical segregation in CH3NH3PbI3 interact with light, diminishing the strain variation between neighboring domains.

Scientific Achievement

Experimental and theoretical results show how light interacts with ferroic domains in a high-performance photovoltaic material. 

Significance and Impact

Work provides enhanced understanding of light-ferroic interactions for a class of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites to help guide the development of  functional optoelectronic devices.   

Research Details

– Correlation of multiple imaging techniques reveal chemical-functional interactions in CH3NH3PbI3
– Light illumination can be used to screen the strain variation between neighboring ferroelastic twin domains
– Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the screening mechanism is the photocarrier-lattice interaction, which produces bulk strain to balance the initial strain variation. This mechanism is confirmed by X-ray diffraction studies.
 
Y. Liu, A. V. Ievlev, L. Collins, N. Borodinov, A. Belianinov, J. K. Keum, M. Wang, M. Ahmadi, S. Jesse, K. Xiao, B. G. Sumpter, B. Hu, S. V. Kalinin, and O. S. Ovchinnikova, "Light-Ferroic Interaction in Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskites," Adv. Optical Mater. 7, 1901451 (2019). DOI: 10.1002/adom.201901451