Ligand assisted growth of perovskite single crystals with low defect density

Authors

Ye Liu, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Xiaopeng Zheng, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Yanjun Fang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Ying Zhou, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Zhenyi Ni, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Xun Xiao, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Shangshang Chen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jinsong Huang, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2021

Citation

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2021) 12:1686 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21934-6 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications

Abstract

A low defect density in metal halide perovskite single crystals is critical to achieve high performance optoelectronic devices. Here we show the reduction of defect density in per[1]ovskite single crystals grown by a ligand-assisted solution process with 3‐(decyldimethy[1]lammonio)‐propane‐sulfonate inner salt (DPSI) as an additive. DPSI ligands anchoring with lead ions on perovskite crystal surfaces not only suppress nucleation in solution, but also regulate the addition of proper ions to the growing surface, which greatly enhances the crystal quality. The grown CH₃NH₃PbI₃ crystals show better crystallinity and a 23-fold smaller trap density of 7 × 10¹⁰ cm⁻³ than the optimized control crystals. The enhanced material properties result in significantly suppressed ion migration and superior X-ray detection sensitivity of CH3NH3PbI3 detectors of (2.6 ± 0.4) × 10⁶ µC Gy⁻¹ air cm⁻² for 60 kVp X-ray and the lowest detectable dose rate reaches (5.0 ± 0.7) nGy s⁻¹ , which enables reduced radiation dose to patients in medical X-ray diagnostics.