Atomic Structure of Grain Boundaries, Dislocations and Associated Strain in Templated Co-evaporated Photoactive Halide Perovskites

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Hauptverfasser: Pham, Huyen T, Yan, Siyu, Xu, Zhou, Li, Weilun, Gorelick, Sergey, Johnston, Michael B, Etheridge, Joanne
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Pham, Huyen T
Yan, Siyu
Xu, Zhou
Li, Weilun
Gorelick, Sergey
Johnston, Michael B
Etheridge, Joanne
author_facet Pham, Huyen T
Yan, Siyu
Xu, Zhou
Li, Weilun
Gorelick, Sergey
Johnston, Michael B
Etheridge, Joanne
contents Structural defects, particularly grain boundaries, play a crucial role in governing charge transport and the optoelectronic properties of metal halide perovskites, thereby limiting the performance of devices. Solar cells incorporating templated FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx show significant improvements in grain orientation and steady-state power conversion efficiency; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we address this gap by employing a suite of tailored low-dose electron microscopy techniques to investigate the templated FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx film, revealing that it exhibits a preferred crystallographic orientation along the <001> zone axis, with arbitrary grain rotations about that axis, indicative of a Volmer-Weber growth mechanism. We determine the atomic structure of the resulting high-angle and low-angle grain boundaries. We also reveal the presence of edge dislocations and their associated strain fields, demonstrating the compressive strain on one side of the dislocation core and tensile strain on the opposite side. Furthermore, we find dislocations associated with stacking faults. These atomic-level insights uncover which grain boundaries and intra-grain defects are likely to act as recombination centres or modify band gaps, crucial for understanding which defects influence the performance of perovskite solar cell devices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_04446
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Atomic Structure of Grain Boundaries, Dislocations and Associated Strain in Templated Co-evaporated Photoactive Halide Perovskites
Pham, Huyen T
Yan, Siyu
Xu, Zhou
Li, Weilun
Gorelick, Sergey
Johnston, Michael B
Etheridge, Joanne
Materials Science
Structural defects, particularly grain boundaries, play a crucial role in governing charge transport and the optoelectronic properties of metal halide perovskites, thereby limiting the performance of devices. Solar cells incorporating templated FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx show significant improvements in grain orientation and steady-state power conversion efficiency; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we address this gap by employing a suite of tailored low-dose electron microscopy techniques to investigate the templated FA0.9Cs0.1PbI3-xClx film, revealing that it exhibits a preferred crystallographic orientation along the <001> zone axis, with arbitrary grain rotations about that axis, indicative of a Volmer-Weber growth mechanism. We determine the atomic structure of the resulting high-angle and low-angle grain boundaries. We also reveal the presence of edge dislocations and their associated strain fields, demonstrating the compressive strain on one side of the dislocation core and tensile strain on the opposite side. Furthermore, we find dislocations associated with stacking faults. These atomic-level insights uncover which grain boundaries and intra-grain defects are likely to act as recombination centres or modify band gaps, crucial for understanding which defects influence the performance of perovskite solar cell devices.
title Atomic Structure of Grain Boundaries, Dislocations and Associated Strain in Templated Co-evaporated Photoactive Halide Perovskites
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04446