Local Crystal Misorientation Influences Non-radiative Recombination in Halide Perovskites

Journal Article · Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Joule

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.09.001· OSTI ID:1737675

Jariwala, Sarthak; Sun, Hongyu; Adhyaksa, Gede W. P.; Lof, Andries; Muscarella, Loreta A.; Ehrler, Bruno; Garnett, Erik C.; Ginger, David S.

We use ultrasensitive electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to map the local crystal orientations, grains, and grain boundaries in CH₃NH₃PbI₃ (MAPI) perovskite thin films. Although the true grain structure is broadly consistent with the morphology visible in scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the inverse pole figure maps taken with EBSD reveal grain structure and internal misorientation that is otherwise hidden. Local crystal misorientation is consistent with the presence of local strain which varies from one grain to the next. We acquire co-aligned confocal optical photoluminescence (PL) microscopy images on the same MAPI samples used for EBSD. We correlate optical and EBSD data, showing that PL is anticorrelated with the local grain orientation spread, suggesting that grains with higher degrees of crystalline orientational heterogeneity (local strain) exhibit more non-radiative recombination. Furthermore, we find that larger grains tend to have larger grain orientation spread, consistent with higher degrees of strain and non-radiative recombination.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0013957
• OSTI ID: 1737675
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1561116; OSTI ID: 1694331
• Journal Information: Joule, Journal Name: Joule Vol. 3 Journal Issue: 12; ISSN 2542-4351
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
perovskite solar cells
electron back scatter diffraction
local misorientation
non-radiative recombination
grain orientation
sub-grain boundaries
local strain
orientation heterogeneity
photoluminescence
semiconductor photovoltaics