No abstract

Lead halide perovskites have demonstrated outstanding achievements in photoelectric applications owing to their unique properties. However, the moisture sensitivity of lead halide perovskite has rarely been developed into an applicable humidity sensor due to the intrinsic instability and toxicity issue. Herein, as a highly stable lead-free perovskite, a Cs 2 BiAgBr 6 thin film is chosen to be the active material for humidity sensor due to its extraordinary humidity-dependent electrical properties and good stability. This Cs 2 BiAgBr 6 thin film humidity sensor demonstrates a superfast response time (1.78 s) and recovery time (0.45 s). The superfast response and recovery properties can be attributed to the reversible physisorption of water molecules, which can be easily adsorbed onto or desorbed from the thin film surface. Moreover, the sensor also shows an excellent reliability and stability properties as well as logarithmic linearity in a relative humidity's range of 15% to 78%. The lead-free Cs 2 BiAgBr 6 perovskite possesses great potential for application in real-time humidity sensing.

A key challenge that remains in perovskite light-emitting diodes is to achieve longterm operational stability. We find that the halide ions at perovskite surface migrate into the hole transport layer during operation, which works as one of the dominant device degradation pathways. Intriguingly, these ions can also gradually move back and consequently lead to the recovery of device performance. The repeatable performance recovery at room temperature can greatly help to enhance the long-term reliability of perovskite light-emitting devices in practical applications.

Carrier density and carrier lifetime play important roles in determining recombination dynamics, which are useful for understanding the excellent optoelectrical properties and the rich applications of halide perovskites.

Toward pursuing high‐performance photodetectors based on 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), it is desirable to reduce the high dark current and sluggish response time. Here, in multilayer MoS2‐based photodetectors, a 2D halide perovskite, (C6H5C2H4NH3)2PbI4 ((PEA)2PbI4), is introduced as a bifunctional material: both as electron reservoir to reduce free carriers and passivation agent to passivate defects. Surprisingly, dark current is suppressed by six orders of magnitude after coating a (PEA)2PbI4 thin layer onto pristine MoS2 photodetector, with the dark current decreased to 10−11 A. This huge reduction of dark current suggests an efficient interlayer charge transfer from MoS2 to (PEA)2PbI4, which is further verified by photoluminescence quenching phenomenon. It indicates that (PEA)2PbI4 serves as electron reservoir to reduce carrier density of MoS2, resulting in ultrahigh detectivity (1.06 × 1013 Jones). Moreover, the response speed is also accelerated by more than 100‐fold due to passivation by 2D perovskite. In addition, it is found that this type of photodetectors can further work at self‐power mode (with the bias of 0 V). Therefore, the strategy of applying 2D perovskite on the surface of TMDs provides a novel way to fabricate high‐performance photodetectors.

Optoelectronic behavior in materials such as organic/inorganic hybrid perovskites depend on a complex interplay between fast (electronic) and slower (ionic) processes. These processes are thought to be influenced by structural inhomogeneities (e.g. interfaces and grain boundaries) bringing forward the necessity for development of techniques capable of correlating nanostructure and photo-transport behavior. While Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is ideally suited to map surface potentials on relevant length scales, it lacks sufficient temporal resolution to extract the meaningful system dynamics. Here, we develop a time resolved surface photovoltage (SPV) measurement based on full information capture of the photodetector stream during open loop KPFM operation. G-Mode, or G-KPFM allows quantification of SPV with microsecond temporal and nanoscale spatial resolution. Using this technique, we observe concurrent spatial and fast temporal variations in the SPV generated across a methylammonium lead bromide (MAPbBr3) thin film, a possible indicator relating microstructure with heterogenous photo-transport behavior. We further demonstrate the advantage of adopting big data analytics including unsupervised clustering methods to quickly discern spatial variability in the information rich SPV dataset. Beyond G-KPFM, such clustering methods will be useful for interpretation of the multidimensional datasets arising from the growing number of time resolved KPFM approaches now available.

Despite quick development of perovskite light‐emitting diodes (PeLEDs) during the past few years, the fundamental mechanisms on how ion migration affects device efficiency and stability remain unclear. Here, it is demonstrated that the dynamic redistribution of mobile ions in the emissive layer plays a key role in the performance of PeLEDs and can explain a range of abnormal behaviours commonly observed during the device measurement. The dynamic redistribution of mobile ions changes charge–carrier injection and leads to increased recombination current; at the same time, the ion redistribution also changes charge transport and results in decreased shunt resistance current. As a result, the PeLEDs show hysteresis in external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) and radiance, that is, higher EQEs and radiance during the reverse voltage scan than during the forward scan. In addition, the changes on charge injection and transport induced by the ion redistribution also well explain the rise of the EQE/radiance values under constant driving voltages. The argument is further rationalized by adding extra formamidinium iodide (FAI) into optimized PeLEDs based on FAPbI3, resulting in more significant hysteresis and shorter operational stability of the PeLEDs.

With the capability to manipulate the built‐in field in solar cells, ferroelectricity is found to be a promising attribute for harvesting solar energy in solar cell devices by influencing associated device parameters. Researchers have devoted themselves to the exploration of ferroelectric materials that simultaneously possess strong light absorption and good electric transport properties for a long time. Here, it is presented a novel and facile approach of combining state‐of‐art light absorption and electric transport properties with ferroelectricity by the incorporation of room temperature 1D ferroelectric perovskite with 3D organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite (OIHP). The 1D/3D mixed OIHP films are found to exhibit evident ferroelectric properties. It is notable that the poling of the 1D/3D mixed ferroelectric OIHP solar cell can increase the average Voc can be increased from 1.13 to 1.16 V, the average PCE from 20.7% to 21.5%. A maximum power conversion efficiency of 22.7%, along with an enhanced fill factor of over 80% and open‐circuit voltage of 1.19 V, can be achieved in the champion device. The enhancement is by virtue of reduced surface recombination by ferroelectricity‐induced modification of the built‐in field. The maximum power point tracking measurement substantiates the retention of ferroelectric‐polarization during the continued operation.