Low-frequency optical phonon modes and carrier mobility in the halide perovskite CH3NH3PbBr3 using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 111; no. 20
• Main Authors: Zhao, Daming, Skelton, Jonathan M., Hu, Hongwei, La-o-vorakiat, Chan, Zhu, Jian-Xin, Marcus, Rudolph A., Michel-Beyerle, Maria-Elisabeth, Lam, Yeng Ming, Walsh, Aron, Chia, Elbert E. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 13-11-2017
• Subjects: Applied physics; Carrier mobility; Carrier recombination; Crystallization; Electron recombination; Perovskites; Polarons; Spectroscopy; Spectrum analysis; Time domain analysis
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4993524

As a light absorber in photovoltaic applications, hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskites should have long and balanced diffusion lengths for both the separated electrons and holes before recombination, which necessitates high carrier mobility. In polar semiconductors, the room-temperature carrier mobility is often limited by the scattering between carriers and the lowest-frequency optical phonon modes. Using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, we examine the temperature evolution of these phonon modes in CH3NH3PbBr3 and obtained high carrier mobility values using Feynman's polaron theory. This method allows us to estimate the upper limit of carrier mobilities without the need to create photogenerated free carriers, and can be applied to other heteropolar semiconductor systems with large polarons.