Scanning Photocurrent Microscopy in Single Crystal Multidimensional Hybrid Lead Bromide Perovskites

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Sep 16;13(18):2570. doi: 10.3390/nano13182570.

Abstract

We investigated solution-grown single crystals of multidimensional 2D-3D hybrid lead bromide perovskites using spatially resolved photocurrent and photoluminescence. Scanning photocurrent microscopy (SPCM) measurements where the electrodes consisted of a dip probe contact and a back contact. The crystals revealed significant differences between 3D and multidimensional 2D-3D perovskites under biased detection, not only in terms of photocarrier decay length values but also in the spatial dynamics across the crystal. In general, the photocurrent maps indicate that the closer the border proximity, the shorter the effective decay length, thus suggesting a determinant role of the border recombination centers in monocrystalline samples. In this case, multidimensional 2D-3D perovskites exhibited a simple fitting model consisting of a single exponential, while 3D perovskites demonstrated two distinct charge carrier migration dynamics within the crystal: fast and slow. Although the first one matches that of the 2D-3D perovskite, the long decay of the 3D sample exhibits a value two orders of magnitude larger. This difference could be attributed to the presence of interlayer screening and a larger exciton binding energy of the multidimensional 2D-3D perovskites with respect to their 3D counterparts.

Keywords: SPCM; diffusion length; dynamic; multidimensional; perovskite; single crystal.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the project MCIN/AEI/PID2021-123163OB-I00, and ERDF “A way of making Europe” by the European Union, as well as the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence program (CEX2021-001230-S), Ministry for Science and Innovation (MCIN) of Spain.