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Sensitive X-ray detectors made of methylammonium lead tribromide perovskite single crystals

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 333–339 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The large mobilities and carrier lifetimes of hybrid perovskite single crystals and the high atomic numbers of Pb, I and Br make them ideal for X-ray and gamma-ray detection. Here, we report a sensitive X-ray detector made of methylammonium lead bromide perovskite single crystals. A record-high mobility–lifetime product of 1.2 × 10–2 cm2 V–1 and an extremely small surface charge recombination velocity of 64 cm s–1 are realized by reducing the bulk defects and passivating surface traps. Single-crystal devices with a thickness of 2–3 mm show 16.4% detection efficiency at near zero bias under irradiation with continuum X-ray energy up to 50 keV. The lowest detectable X-ray dose rate is 0.5 μGyair s–1 with a sensitivity of 80 μC Gy−1air cm–2, which is four times higher than the sensitivity achieved with α-Se X-ray detectors. This allows the radiation dose applied to a human body to be reduced for many medical and security check applications.

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Figure 1: Optoelectronic properties of MAPbBr3 single crystals.
Figure 2: UV–O3 passivation of the surface traps of MAPbBr3 single crystals.
Figure 3: Photodetection performance of the MAPbBr3 single-crystal devices.
Figure 4: X-ray detection performance of the MAPbBr3 single-crystal devices.

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Acknowledgements

The majority of this work was supported financially by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (award no. HDTRA1-14-1-0030). M.A.L. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC starting grant ‘Hy-SPOD’ no. 306983). Y.G. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (grant no. CBET-1437656).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, 68588, Nebraska, USA

    Haotong Wei, Yanjun Fang & Jinsong Huang

  2. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nuclear Engineering Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 43210, Ohio, USA

    Padhraic Mulligan, William Chuirazzi & Lei Cao

  3. Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands

    Hong-Hua Fang & Maria Antonietta Loi

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, 14627-0171, New York, USA

    Congcong Wang, Benjamin R. Ecker & Yongli Gao

  5. Institute of Super-microstructure and Ultrafast Process in Advanced Materials (ISUPAM), Central South University, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China

    Yongli Gao

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  1. Haotong Wei
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Contributions

J.H. conceived and supervised the project. H.W. synthesized materials, fabricated the device and measured the optoelectronic properties and photodetector performance. P.M., W.C. and L.C. measured the device properties under X-ray radiation. H.W., Y.F. and P.M. calculated the charge collection efficiency under X-ray radiation. H.H.F. and M.A.L. performed photoluminescence and photoluminescence lifetime measurements. C.W., B.E. and Y.G. carried out XPS measurement. All authors analysed the data. J.H. and H.W. wrote the manuscript, and all authors reviewed it.

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Correspondence to Lei Cao or Jinsong Huang.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Wei, H., Fang, Y., Mulligan, P. et al. Sensitive X-ray detectors made of methylammonium lead tribromide perovskite single crystals. Nature Photon 10, 333–339 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.41

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