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Spin-polarized exciton quantum beating in hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites

Abstract

Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites have emerged as a new class of semiconductors that exhibit excellent performance as active layers in photovoltaic solar cells. These compounds are also highly promising materials for the field of spintronics due to their large and tunable spin–orbit coupling, spin-dependent optical selection rules, and their predicted electrically tunable Rashba spin splitting. Here we demonstrate the optical orientation of excitons and optical detection of spin-polarized exciton quantum beating in polycrystalline films of the hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbClxI3−x. Time-resolved Faraday rotation measurement in zero magnetic field reveals unexpectedly long spin lifetimes exceeding 1 ns at 4 K, despite the large spin–orbit couplings of the heavy lead and iodine atoms. The quantum beating of exciton states in transverse magnetic fields shows two distinct frequencies, corresponding to two g-factors of 2.63 and −0.33, which we assign to electrons and holes, respectively. These results provide a basic picture of the exciton states in hybrid perovskites, and suggest they hold potential for spintronic applications.

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Figure 1: Optical transitions in the perovskites and schematic of pump–probe measurement.
Figure 2: Spin dynamics and coherence in perovskites measured by TRFR at 4 K.
Figure 3: Magnetic field dependence of the exciton energy levels and beat frequencies.
Figure 4: Energy dependence of the Faraday rotation in CH3NH3PbClxI3−x films.
Figure 5: Temperature dependence of the spin lifetimes and g-factors in CH3NH3PbClxI3−x films.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge M. Raikh and E. Ehrenfreund for helpful discussions. This work is mainly supported by a start-up grant from University of Utah (Low temperature ultrafast and CW optics measurement systems), and in part by the DOE, Office of Science, grant DE-SC0014579 (ultrafast laser, perovskite film synthesis and evaluation). We also acknowledge the NSF Material Science and Engineering Center at the University of Utah (DMR-1121252) for supporting the perovskite growth and device preparation facilities.

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Y.S.L. conceived and supervised the experiments. P.O., W.T., N.G. and R.W. performed the optical measurements and analysed the data. R.W., C.Z. and D.S. prepared the samples, and characterized the crystal structure and morphology of the samples. Z.-G.Y. provided theoretical description of the exciton states. P.O., N.G. and Y.S.L. wrote the paper in consultation with Z.-G.Y. and Z.V.V. All authors commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yan S. Li.

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Odenthal, P., Talmadge, W., Gundlach, N. et al. Spin-polarized exciton quantum beating in hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites. Nature Phys 13, 894–899 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4145

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