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Antiferroelectric-to-Ferroelectric Switching in CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite and Its Potential Role in Effective Charge Separation in Perovskite Solar Cells

Galhenage A. Sewvandi1,2,†, Dengwei Hu2,3, Changdong Chen2, Hao Ma2, Takafumi Kusunose2, Yasuhiro Tanaka2, Shunsuke Nakanishi2, and Qi Feng2,*

  • 1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda 10400, Sri Lanka
  • 2Department of Advanced Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering, Kagawa University, 2217-20 Hayashi-cho, Takamatsu 761-0396, Japan
  • 3College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Advanced Ferroelectric Functional Materials, Key Laboratory of Photochemistry of Shaanxi Province, Baoji University of Arts and Science, 1 Hi-Tech Avenue, Baoji, Shaanxi 721013, People’s Republic of China

  • *Corresponding author. feng@eng.kagawa-u.ac.jp
  • †sewvandiga@yahoo.com
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Phys. Rev. Applied 6, 024007 – Published 11 August, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.024007

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) often suffer from large performance variations which impede to define a clear charge-transfer mechanism. Ferroelectric polarization is measured numerically using CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) pellets to overcome the measurement issues such as pinholes and low uniformity of thickness, etc., with MAPbI3 thin films. MAPbI3 perovskite is an antiferroelectric semiconductor which is different from typical semiconducting materials and ferroelectric materials. The effect of polarization carrier separation on the charge-transfer mechanism in the PSCs is elucidated by using the results of ferroelectric and structural studies on the perovskite. The ferroelectric polarization contributes to an inherent carrier-separation effect and the I–V hysteresis. The ferroelectric and semiconducting synergistic charge-separation effect gives an alternative category of solar cells, ferroelectric semiconductor solar cells. Our findings identify the ferroelectric semiconducting behavior of the perovskite absorber as being significant to the improvement of the ferroelectric PSCs performances in future developments.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 6, 024007– Published 11 August, 2016
  • Received 9 April 2016

© 2016 American Physical Society

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