Synergy between Ion Migration and Charge Carrier Recombination in Metal-Halide Perovskites

Charge carrier recombination plays a vital role in the CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cell. By investigating a possible synergy between ion migration and charge carrier recombination, we demonstrate that the nonradiative recombination accelerates by an order of magnitude during iodide migration. The migration induces lattice distortion that brings electrons and holes close to each other and increases their electrostatic interactions. The wave function localization in the same spatial region, and the enhanced lattice and iodide movements increase the nonadiabatic coupling. At the same time, quantum coherence lasts longer, because electron and hole energy levels become correlated. All these factors greatly increase the recombination rate. Moreover, the energy level of the iodide vacancy created during the migration moves from inside the conduction band in the equilibrated structure into the band gap, acting as a typical efficient nonradiative charge recombination center. Our work shows that the different dynamic processes are strongly correlated in halide perovskites and demonstrates that defects, considered to be benign, can become very detrimental under non-equilibrium conditions. The reported results strongly suggest that ion migration should be avoided in halide perovskites, both for its own reasons, such as the large current–voltage hysteresis, and because it greatly accelerates charge carrier losses.