Advances in tuning hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites with pressure yield new material phases

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) show a variety of unique optoelectronic properties for green and sustainable energy. These materials can be tuned using external stimuli, such as pressure, temperature, and electric field.

Basavarajappa et al. focuses on the effects of pressure on tuning HOIPs and how it might be used to tune structural, electronic and optical properties in the materials for use in optoelectronics.

Their work highlights the advancements in the field of piezochromism and provides a roadmap for using the effects of pressure to achieve novel phases of HOIPS, both theoretically and experimentally.

“We see the marriage between optical properties of hybrid perovskites and the stimuli effect of external pressure in order to derive novel phases that are not being observed in the ambient synthesis condition,” said author Sudip Chakraborty. “It can lead to exciting, vivid applications, like optical switches, display devices and energy harvesting.”

Of particular interest is the potential to achieve new crystal structure phases not commonly found during experimental synthesis. This is achieved through yet-to-be characterized electronic, optical and magnetic properties under the external pressure.

Their work highlights issues that occur under external hydrostatic pressure, such as Jahn-teller distortions, Rashba splitting, and encountering inaccessible structural phases through lattice distortion.

“Accuracy in the electronic structure calculations, especially for the excited state properties of materials, remained a puzzling challenge,” Chakraborty said.

The group, Materials Theory for Energy Scavenging (MATES) Lab, looks to continue working toward tuning charge-carrier recombination through external stimuli.

Source: “Evolution of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite materials under external pressure,” by Manasa G. Basavarajappa, Mohammad Khaja Nazeeruddin, and Sudip Chakraborty, Applied Physics Reviews (2021). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0053128 .