Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Perovskite photovoltaics

Slow recombination unveiled

Nature Materials volume 16, pages 4–6 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

One of the most salient features of hybrid lead halide perovskites is the extended lifetime of their photogenerated charge carriers. This property has now been shown experimentally to originate from a slow, thermally activated recombination process.

In just four years, hybrid organic–inorganic lead halide perovskites have transitioned from a scientific curiosity known only by a handful of specialists into the most desirable and most studied semiconductor materials in the field of photovoltaics1,2. The reason for such interest is two-fold: this type of material is quite cheap and simple to produce; and the power conversion efficiency of simple, solution-processed solar cells based on perovskite layers has increased rapidly from an initial promising value of 9%1 to now more than 22%3. In addition, the open-circuit voltage for perovskite cells commonly approaches the thermodynamic limit by exceeding 1.2 V. Several chemical and physical investigations, as well as theoretical calculations, have been applied to the prototype perovskite compound methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI3), thereby highlighting the key properties of the material. Among these are long charge carrier lifetime and diffusion length, which have been intriguing and somewhat unexpected. In fact, MAPbI3 is characterized by a strong absorption constant and a high photoluminescence quantum yield, which indicates a direct-bandgap transition. However, the lifetime of photogenerated carriers exceeds the Langevin limit for direct recombination by several orders of magnitude4. Various possible rationales for this apparent contradiction have been proposed on the basis of experimental data and theoretical predictions. Recently, calculations of the band structure that take into account spin–orbit coupling or the positional disorder of organic cations in the perovskite lattice have suggested the presence of a slightly indirect bandgap5,6,7,8. Yet no direct experimental evidence has been reported that could support the idea of a phonon-assisted recombination process for photocarriers.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Schematic band diagram of a semiconductor.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lee, M. M., Teuscher, J., Miyasaka, T., Murakami, T. N. & Snaith, H. J. Science 338, 643–647 (2012).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Kim, H.-S. et al. Sci. Rep. 2, 591 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Saliba, M. et al. Energ. Environ. Sci. 9, 1989–1997 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Johnston, M. B. & Herz, L. M. Acc. Chem. Res. 49, 146–154 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Brivio, F., Butler, K. T., Walsh, A. & van Schilfgaarde, M. Phys. Rev. B 89, 155204 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Motta, C. et al. Nat. Commun. 6, 7026 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Zheng, F., Tan, L. Z., Liu, S. & Rappe, A. M. Nano Lett. 15, 7794–7800 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Etienne, T., Mosconi, E. & De Angelis, F. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 7, 1638–1645 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Hutter, E. M. et al. Nat. Mater. 16, 115–120 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jacques-E. Moser is at the Institute of Chemical Sciences & Engineering of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland,

    Jacques-E. Moser

Authors
  1. Jacques-E. Moser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jacques-E. Moser.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Moser, JE. Slow recombination unveiled. Nature Mater 16, 4–6 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4796

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4796

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing