Optically Transparent Lead Halide Perovskite Polycrystalline Ceramics.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Solid-State Physics
• Optoelectronics

Background:

• Metal halide perovskites offer unique optoelectronic properties.
• Scalable fabrication of high-quality perovskite materials remains a challenge for commercial applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a low-cost, scalable method for fabricating freestanding metal halide perovskite ceramics.
• To investigate the structure-property relationships and benchmark performance against single crystals.

Main Methods:

• Room-temperature uniaxial pressing of CH3NH3PbX3 (X = Br, Cl) powders.
• Characterization using transmission measurements, electron microscopy, X-ray tomography, and optical profilometry.
• Benchmarking properties via spectroscopic ellipsometry, Hall measurements, and nanoindentation.

Main Results:

• Fabrication of millimeter-thick, optically transparent (up to 70% in IR) perovskite ceramics.
• High-quality surfaces achieved without postprocessing.
• Demonstrated gamma-ray scintillation from a transparent MAPbBr3 ceramic.

Conclusions:

• Uniaxial pressing is a broadly applicable, scalable method for producing high-quality perovskite ceramics.
• Perovskite ceramics exhibit properties comparable to single crystals.
• This advancement could enable commercialization of perovskite-based detectors and scintillators.