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Title: Towards predictive band gaps for halide perovskites: Lessons from one-shot and eigenvalue self-consistent GW

Abstract

Halide perovskites constitute a chemically diverse class of crystals with great promise as photovoltaic absorber materials, featuring band gaps between about 1 and 3.5 eV depending on composition. Their diversity calls for a general computational approach to predicting their band gaps. However, such an approach is still lacking. Here, we use density functional theory (DFT) and ab initio many-body perturbation theory within the GW approximation to compute the quasiparticle or fundamental band gap of a set of ten representative halide perovskites: CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 ( MAPbI 3 ), MAPbBr 3 , CsSnBr 3 , ( MA ) 2 BiTlBr 6 , Cs 2 TlAgBr 6 , Cs 2 TlAgCl 6 , Cs 2 BiAgBr 6 , Cs 2 InAgCl 6 , Cs 2 SnBr 6 , and Cs 2 Au 2 I 6 . Comparing with recent measurements, we find that a standard generalized gradient exchange-correlation functional can significantly underestimate the experimental band gaps of these perovskites, particularly in cases with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and highly dispersive band edges, to a degree that varies with composition. We show that these nonsystematic errors are inherited by one-shot G 0 W 0 and eigenvalue self-consistent GW 0 calculations, demonstrating that semilocal DFT starting points are insufficient for MAPbI 3 , MAPbBr 3 , CsSnBr 3 , ( MA ) 2 BiTlBr 6 , Cs 2 TlAgBr 6 , and Cs 2 TlAgCl 6 . On the other hand, we find that DFT with hybrid functionals leads to an improved starting point and G W 0 results in better agreement with experiment for these perovskites. Our results suggest that G W 0 with hybrid functional-based starting points are promising for predicting band gaps of systems with large SOC and dispersive bands in this technologically important class of semiconducting crystals.</

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Bayreuth (Germany)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry; Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); German Research Foundation (DFG)
OSTI Identifier:
1676369
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1708892; SFB840
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 2475-9953
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Band gap; electronic structure; energy materials; perovskite; density functional theory; GW method

Citation Formats

Leppert, Linn, Rangel, Tonatiuh, and Neaton, Jeffrey B. Towards predictive band gaps for halide perovskites: Lessons from one-shot and eigenvalue self-consistent GW. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevmaterials.3.103803.
Leppert, Linn, Rangel, Tonatiuh, & Neaton, Jeffrey B. Towards predictive band gaps for halide perovskites: Lessons from one-shot and eigenvalue self-consistent GW. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.3.103803
Leppert, Linn, Rangel, Tonatiuh, and Neaton, Jeffrey B. Thu . "Towards predictive band gaps for halide perovskites: Lessons from one-shot and eigenvalue self-consistent GW". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevmaterials.3.103803. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1676369.
@article{osti_1676369,
title = {Towards predictive band gaps for halide perovskites: Lessons from one-shot and eigenvalue self-consistent GW},
author = {Leppert, Linn and Rangel, Tonatiuh and Neaton, Jeffrey B.},
abstractNote = {Halide perovskites constitute a chemically diverse class of crystals with great promise as photovoltaic absorber materials, featuring band gaps between about 1 and 3.5 eV depending on composition. Their diversity calls for a general computational approach to predicting their band gaps. However, such an approach is still lacking. Here, we use density functional theory (DFT) and ab initio many-body perturbation theory within the GW approximation to compute the quasiparticle or fundamental band gap of a set of ten representative halide perovskites: CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3), MAPbBr3, CsSnBr3, (MA)2BiTlBr6, Cs2TlAgBr6, Cs2TlAgCl6, Cs2BiAgBr6, Cs2InAgCl6, Cs2SnBr6, and Cs2Au2I6. Comparing with recent measurements, we find that a standard generalized gradient exchange-correlation functional can significantly underestimate the experimental band gaps of these perovskites, particularly in cases with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and highly dispersive band edges, to a degree that varies with composition. We show that these nonsystematic errors are inherited by one-shot G0W0 and eigenvalue self-consistent GW0 calculations, demonstrating that semilocal DFT starting points are insufficient for MAPbI3, MAPbBr3, CsSnBr3, (MA)2BiTlBr6, Cs2TlAgBr6, and Cs2TlAgCl6. On the other hand, we find that DFT with hybrid functionals leads to an improved starting point and GW0 results in better agreement with experiment for these perovskites. Our results suggest that GW0 with hybrid functional-based starting points are promising for predicting band gaps of systems with large SOC and dispersive bands in this technologically important class of semiconducting crystals.</},
doi = {10.1103/physrevmaterials.3.103803},
journal = {Physical Review Materials},
number = 10,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Oct 17 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Oct 17 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: a) Unit cell of MAPbBr3 with Pm$\bar{3}$m symmetry. b) Primitive unit cell of (MA)2BiTlBr6 with Bi in orange, Tl in gray, Br in brown, C in black, N in blue and H in white. c) Experimental, and d) geometry-optimized structure of MAPbBr3 demonstrating relatively large deviations from themore » experimentally demonstrated Pm$\bar{3}$m symmetry. Since we replaced MA by Cs in all calculations, the orientation of the molecule does not affect calculated band gaps.« less

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Excitons and narrow bands determine the optical properties of cesium bismuth halides
journal, November 2019


Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.