Domain Walls Conductivity in Hybrid Organometallic Perovskites and Their Essential Role in CH₃NH₃PbI₃Solar Cell High Performance

<p dir="ltr">The past several years has witnessed a surge of interest in organometallic trihalide perovskites, which are at the heart of the new generation of solid-state solar cells. Here, we calculated the static conductivity of charged domain walls in n- and p- doped organometallic uniaxial ferroelectric semiconductor perovskite CH₃NH₃PbI₃ using the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) theory. We find that due to the charge carrier accumulation, the static conductivity may drastically increase at the domain wall by 3 – 4 orders of magnitude in comparison with conductivity through the bulk of the material. Also, a two-dimensional degenerated gas of highly mobile charge carriers could be formed at the wall. The high values of conductivity at domain walls and interfaces explain high efficiency in organometallic solution-processed perovskite films which contains lots of different point and extended defects. These results could suggest new routes to enhance the performance of this promising class of novel photovoltaic materials.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Scientific Reports<br>License: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0" target="_blank">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep11467" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep11467</a></p>