Low surface recombination velocity in solution-grown CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskite single crystal

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites are attracting intense research effort due to their impressive performance in solar cells. While the carrier transport parameters such as mobility and bulk carrier lifetime shows sufficient characteristics, the surface recombination, which can have major impact on the solar cell performance, has not been studied. Here we measure surface recombination dynamics in CH 3 NH 3 PbBr 3 perovskite single crystals using broadband transient reflectance spectroscopy. The surface recombination velocity is found to be 3.4±0.1 × 10 3 cm s −1 , ∼2–3 orders of magnitude lower than that in many important unpassivated semiconductors employed in solar cells. Our result suggests that the planar grain size for the perovskite thin films should be larger than ∼30 μm to avoid the influence of surface recombination on the effective carrier lifetime. Surface recombination velocity can have a major impact on solar cell performance. Here, Yang et al . measure surface recombination dynamics in perovskite single crystals using broadband transient reflectance spectroscopy. Grain size is crucial to avoid the effects of surface recombination on carrier lifetime.