120 mm Single-crystalline perovskite and wafers: towards viable applications

• Published in: 中国科学：化学英文版 no. 10; pp. 1367 - 1376
• Main Author: Yucheng Liu Xiaodong Ren Jing Zhang Zhou Yang Dong Yang Fengyang Yu Jiankun Sun Changming Zhao Zhun Yao Bo Wang Qingbo Wei Fengwei Xiao Haibo Fan Hao Deng Liangping Deng Shengzhong (Frank) Liu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• ISSN: 1674-7291; 1869-1870

As the large single-crystalline silicon wafers have revolutionized many industries including electronics and solar cells, it is envisioned that the availability of large single-crystalline perovskite crystals and wafers will revolutionize its broad applications in photovoltaics, optoelectronics, lasers, photodetectors, light emitting diodes(LEDs), etc. Here we report a method to grow large single-crystalline perovskites including single-halide crystals: CH3NH3PbX3(X=I, Br, Cl), and dual-halide ones:CH3NH3Pb(ClxBr1.x)3 and CH3NH3Pb(BrxI1.x)3, with the largest crystal being 120 mm in length. Meanwhile, we have advanced a process to slice the large perovskite crystals into thin wafers. It is found that the wafers exhibit remarkable features:(1)its trap-state density is a million times smaller than that in the microcrystalline perovskite thin films(MPTF);(2) its carrier mobility is 410 times higher than its most popular organic counterpart P3HT;(3) its optical absorption is expanded to as high as910 nm comparing to 797 nm for the MPTF;(4) while MPTF decomposes at 150 °C, the wafer is stable at high temperature up to270 °C;(5) when exposed to high humidity(75% RH), MPTF decomposes in 5 h while the wafer shows no change for overnight;(6) its photocurrent response is 250 times higher than its MPTF counterpart. A few electronic devices have been fabricated using the crystalline wafers. Among them, the Hall test gives low carrier concentration with high mobility. The trap-state density is measured much lower than common semiconductors. Moreover, the large SC-wafer is found particularly useful for mass production of integrated circuits. By adjusting the halide composition, both the optical absorption and the light emission can be fine-tuned across the entire visible spectrum from 400 nm to 800 nm. It is envisioned that a range of visible lasers and LEDs may be developed using the dual-halide perovskites. With fewer trap states, high mobility, broader absorption, and humidity resistance, it is expected that solar cells with high stable efficiency maybe attainable using the crystalline wafers.