Electronic-Grade High-Quality Perovskite Single Crystals by a Steady Self-Supply Solution Growth for High-Performance X-ray Detectors

Abstract

High-quality perovskite single crystals with large size are highly desirable for the fundamental research and high energy detection application. Here, a simple and convenient solution method, featuring continuous-mass transport process (CMTP) by a steady self-supply way, is shown to keep the growth of semiconductor single crystals continuously stable at a constant growth rate until an expected crystal size is achieved. A significantly reduced full width at half-maximum (36 arcsec) of the (400) plane from the X-ray rocking curve indicates a low angular dislocation of 6.8 × 106 cm−2 and hence a higher crystalline quality for the CH3NH3PbI3(MAPbI3) single crystals grown by CMTP as compared to the conventional inverse temperature crystallization (ITC) method. Furthermore, the CMTP-based single crystals have lower trap density, reduced by nearly 200% to 4.5 × 109 cm−3, higher mobility increased by 187% to 150.2 cm2 V−1 s−1, and higher mobility–lifetime product increased by around 450% to 1.6 × 10−3 cm2 V−1, as compared with the ITC-grown reference sample. The high performance of the CMTP-based MAPbI3 X-ray detector is comparable to that of a traditional high-quality CdZnTe device, indicating the CMTP method as being a cost-efficient strategy for high-quality electronic-grade semiconductor single crystals.