Antiferroelectric-to-Ferroelectric Switching in CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite and Its Potential Role in Effective Charge Separation in Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) often suffer from large performance variations which impede to define a clear charge-transfer mechanism. Ferroelectric polarization is measured numerically using CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI(3)) pellets to overcome the measurement issues such as pinholes and low uniformity of thickness, etc., with MAPbI(3) thin films. MAPbI(3) perovskite is an antiferroelectric semiconductor which is different from typical semiconducting materials and ferroelectric materials. The effect of polarization carrier separation on the charge-transfer mechanism in the PSCs is elucidated by using the results of ferroelectric and structural studies on the perovskite. The ferroelectric polarization contributes to an inherent carrier-separation effect and the I-V hysteresis. The ferroelectric and semiconducting synergistic charge-separation effect gives an alternative category of solar cells, ferroelectric semiconductor solar cells. Our findings identify the ferroelectric semiconducting behavior of the perovskite absorber as being significant to the improvement of the ferroelectric PSCs performances in future developments.