State-of-the-art photovoltaics use high-purity, large-area, wafer-scale single-crystalline semiconductors grown by sophisticated, high-temperature crystal growth processes. We demonstrate a solution-based hot-casting technique to grow continuous, pinhole-free thin films of organometallic perovskites with millimeter-scale crystalline grains. We fabricated planar solar cells with efficiencies app...

Impressive performance of hybrid perovskite solar cells reported in recent years still awaits a comprehensive understanding of its microscopic origins. In this work, the intrinsic Hall mobility and photocarrier recombination coefficient are directly measured in these materials in steady-state transport studies. The results show that electron-hole recombination and carrier trapping rates in hybr...

The large photocurrent hysteresis observed in many organometal trihalide perovskite solar cells has become a major hindrance impairing the ultimate performance and stability of these devices, while its origin was unknown. Here we demonstrate the trap states on the surface and grain boundaries of the perovskite materials to be the origin of photocurrent hysteresis and that the fullerene layers d...

Double perovskites, comprising two different cations, are potential nontoxic alternatives to lead halide perovskites. Here, we characterized thin films and crystals of Cs2AgBiBr6 by time-resolved microwave conductance (TRMC), which probes formation and decay of mobile charges upon pulsed irradiation. Optical excitation of films results in the formation of charges with a yield times mobility pro...

Among various all-inorganic halide perovskites exhibiting better stability than organic-inorganic halide perovskites, α-CsPbI3 with the most suitable band gap for tandem solar cell application faces an issue of phase instability under ambient conditions. We discovered that a small amount of two-dimensional (2D) EDAPbI4 perovskite containing the ethylenediamine (EDA) cation stabilizes the α-CsPb...

Room and liquid nitrogen temperatures Mn K-edge extended X-ray fine structure (EXAFS) studies were carried out on powder samples of ALaMnRuO6 (A = Ca, Sr, Ba) perovskites. The EXAFS analysis of Mn K-edge spectra showed MnO6 octahedra are distorted. Among the three perovskites, the polyhedral distortion is highest for SrLaMnRuO6 ( = 1.4 × 10). For CaLaMnRuO6 ( = 0.5 × 10) and BaLaMnRuO6, ( = ...

The high optical gain and absorption of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have attracted attention for photonic device applications. However, owing to the sensitivity of organic moieties to solvents and temperature, device processing is challenging, particularly for patterning. Here, we report the direct patterning of perovskites using chemically gas-assisted focused-ion beam (GAFIB) etching...

Degradation of hybrid halide perovskites under the influence of environmental factors impairs future prospects of using these materials as absorbers in solar cells. First principle calculations can be used as a guideline in search of new materials, provided we can rely on their predictive capabilities. We show that the instability of perovskites can be captured using ab initio total energy calc...

The ability to make rapid and accurate predictions on bandgaps of double perovskites is of much practical interest for a range of applications. While quantum mechanical computations for high-fidelity bandgaps are enormously computation-time intensive and thus impractical in high throughput studies, informatics-based statistical learning approaches can be a promising alternative. Here we demonst...

A variety of PbI2/MAPbI3 perovskites were prepared and investigated by a rapid screening technique utilizing a modified scanning electrochemical microscope (SECM) in order to determine how excess PbI2 affects its photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties. An optimum ratio of 2.5% PbI2/MAPbI3 was found to enhance photocurrent over pristine MAPbI3 on a spot array electrode under irradiation. With bul...