Carrier Transport in Methylammonium Lead Iodide Perovskite Single Crystals Studied by Dark Current, Steady State and Transient Photocurrent Measurements

Electronic transport properties of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite single crystals prepared by inverse temperature crystallisation have been investigated using dark current, steady state and transient photocurrent measurements. Above 250 K the dark conductivity at electric fields below 100 V/cm is thermally activated, with single activation energy 0.7 eV and magnitude 4×10−8 S/cm at 300 K. At higher electric fields, conductivity increases as a power law suggesting space charge limitation. Steady state photoconductivity exhibits a roughly linear dependence on photon flux below 1015 cm−2s−1 and square root dependence above this, consistent with trap-limited and band-to-band recombination mechanisms respectively. Photocurrent overshoot and undershoot on a timescale of 10-100 s are observed on application and removal of a steady light source. Transient photocurrent measurements with temperature reveal a peak in the localised density of states 0.26 eV into the band gap, with an attempt to escape frequency of 1011 s−1. Deeper states are distributed exponentially with characteristic energy 54 meV, decreasing towards mid-gap.