Electron-hole recombination mechanism in halide perovskites

halide
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A research team led by Prof. Zhao Jin from Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences found low-frequency lattice phonons in halide perovskites resulting in high defect tolerance toward electron-hole recombination with their independently-developed software, Hefei-NAMD. The study published in Science Advances.

Solar cells have been wildly used in various livelihood or industrial applications, while the efficiency and durability of solar energy semiconductors still harass manufacturers. Defects in semiconducting materials form electron-hole (e-h) centers detrimental to solar conversion efficiency. This is an important scientific issue in this field.

As early as the 1950s, the scientists Shockley, Read and Hall proposed the famous Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) model via which states in the band gap form e-h recombination centers. And for decades, the abstract model has been adapted by many scientists in the semiconducting field. However, it does not account for the electron-phonon coupling which is the key for e-h recombination by nonradiative processes.

In this study, the researchers investigated the e-h recombination processes due to native point defects in methylammonium lead halide (MAPbI3) perovskites using nonadiabatic molecular dynamics and taking factors in count precisely such as electron-phonon interactions, energy levels, nuclear velocity, decoherence effects and carrier concentration. They found that charge recombination in MAPbI3 was not enhanced regardless of whether the defects introduce a shallow or deep band state, which meant the SRH theory lapsed.

Though analyzing the quantitatively, they demonstrated that the photogenerated carriers are only coupled with low-frequency phonons and electron and hole states overlap weakly, which explained why MAPbI3 still shows high solar conversion efficiency with many defects.

These findings are significant in the future design of functional semiconducting materials for solar energy conversion.

More information: Weibin Chu et al. Low-frequency lattice phonons in halide perovskites explain high defect tolerance toward electron-hole recombination, Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw7453

Journal information: Science Advances

Citation: Electron-hole recombination mechanism in halide perovskites (2020, February 24) retrieved 25 June 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2020-02-electron-hole-recombination-mechanism-halide-perovskites.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

New technique lets researchers map strain in next-gen solar cells

16 shares

Feedback to editors