Wafer-Scale Manufacturing of Single-Crystal Perovskite Optoelectronics

Single-crystal perovskites possess exceptional optoelectronic properties and stability and are very promising for making future high-efficiency optoelectronic devices. Compared to their polycrystalline counterparts, single-crystal perovskites are free from the instabilities caused by morphological disorder and surface degradation under ambient conditions, and have remarkable optoelectronic properties, such as low trap density, high mobility, low intrinsic carrier concentration and long carrier diffusion length.

The scalable manufacturing of single-crystal perovskite is currently facing two significant manufacturing challenges. Firstly, wafer-size and micrometre thickness single-crystal perovskite thin films are extremely difficult to achieve, because one seed-crystal can only grow into a single-crystal thin film with a limited width-to-thickness aspect ratio, while multiple randomly oriented seed crystals form polycrystalline perovskite thin films. Secondly, patterning single crystal thin films is a key enabling step towards the manufacture of perovskite integrated optoelectronic devices on a large scale, but this is currently unavailable. Unlike silicon, perovskites are sensitive to high temperature and polar solvents. Therefore, traditional scalable lithography methods cannot be applied to develop nanometre/micrometre-resolution surface patterns for integrated optoelectronic devices.

In this project we aim to address these challenges by developing a scalable and high-yield manufacturing process for mass-producing single-crystal perovskite optoelectronics. A proof-of-concept controllable and scalable manufacturing process will be delivered, to fabricate wafer-size (1-inch and above) and micrometre/sub-micrometre thin (<2 micrometres) single-crystal perovskite films with nanometre-resolution surface patterns (~50nm). We will fabricate solar cells and photodetectors using our nanopatterned single-crystal perovskite thin films and test their performances. The outcome of this project will be a crucial step towards the scalable manufacturing of single-crystal perovskite optoelectronic device, and is expected to transform the single-crystal optoelectronic manufacturing and to strengthen the UK's leading position in this field.