Strain manipulation for Halide Perovskite Performance Improvements

Metal-organic hybrid halide perovskites represent a new class of materials that could have an enormous impact across a range of optoelectronic applications,
but, similar to the history of silicon and III-V materials, a thorough understanding of their material properties is required to achieve these ambitious aims. As a
result of their hybrid nature, perovskites are structurally flexible with various crystallographic configurations accessible at low energy cost at multiple length
scales. Local crystalographic phases, polytypes or various classes of dislocations are some of the crystalographic configurations that can result in intrinsic strain
fields in these materials. How this can be exploited for performance improvements has yet not been thoroughly and systematically explored. The objective of
this project is to identify the sources of intrinsic strain fields at the nanoscale, achieve their full manipulation with external stressors and utilise it to control
optoelectronic properties for demonstrating performance improvements. This will be achieved by establishing a unique correlative optical and X-ray
synchrotron microscopy approach fostered by the candidate's extensive experience with synchrotron characterisation and backed by excellence in multimodal
optical microscopy of the host group.