Research Update: Relativistic origin of slow electron-hole recombination in hybrid halide perovskite solar cells

The hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPI) exhibits long minority-carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths. We show that slow recombination originates from a spin-split indirect-gap. Large internal electric fields act on spin-orbit-coupled band extrema, shifting band-edges to inequivalent wavevectors, m...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pooya Azarhoosh, Scott McKechnie, Jarvist M. Frost, Aron Walsh, Mark van Schilfgaarde
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2016-09-01
Series:APL Materials
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4955028
Description
Summary:The hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPI) exhibits long minority-carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths. We show that slow recombination originates from a spin-split indirect-gap. Large internal electric fields act on spin-orbit-coupled band extrema, shifting band-edges to inequivalent wavevectors, making the fundamental gap indirect. From a description of photoluminescence within the quasiparticle self-consistent GW approximation for MAPI, CdTe, and GaAs, we predict carrier lifetime as a function of light intensity and temperature. At operating conditions we find radiative recombination in MAPI is reduced by a factor of more than 350 compared to direct gap behavior. The indirect gap is retained with dynamic disorder.
ISSN:2166-532X