Optoelectronic Properties of Chalcogenide Perovskites by Many-Body Perturbation Theory

Chalcogenide perovskites have emerged as lead-free, stable photovoltaic materials, having promising optoelectronic properties. However, a detailed theoretical study on excitonic properties is rather demanding task due to the huge computational cost and, therefore, is hitherto unknown. Here, we report the excitonic properties of chalcogenide perovskites AZrS₃ (A = Ca, Sr, Ba) using state-of-the-art hybrid density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory (within the framework of GW and BSE). We find the exciton binding energy (E_B) is larger than that of conventional halide perovskites. We also observe, by computing the electron-phonon coupling parameters, a more stable charge-separated polaronic state as compared to that of the bound exciton. The ionic contribution to dielectric screening is found to be negligible in this class of materials. On the basis of the direct band gap and the absorption coefficient, the estimated spectroscopic limited maximum efficiency is quite good when these materials are considered as promising environmentally friendly perovskites suitable for photovoltaics.