Coordination Funds

• Applicant: Professor Lukas Schmidt-Mende, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics ; Synthesis and Properties of Functional Materials
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423613109

A new class of hybrid organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite semiconductors has attracted global attention since the reports on high efficiency perovskite solar cells in mid-2012. In only a few years photoconversion efficiency surpassing 25% has been achieved. Despite rapid progress in this emerging field, including many exciting research findings by our SPP 2196, there is still limited understanding of many mechanisms that lead to such an extraordinary performance. For the second funding period, stability and device performance remain the major challenges. However, we have modified the challenges slightly to adjust for the recent advances in knowledge and to focus more on the current important research directions and open questions. The topics for the second funding period are:• Precursor chemistry, perovskite crystallisation, and film formation mechanisms• Effects of dimensionality (single crystals, 3D, 2D, 1D, 0D) and composition tuning• Role of lead and possible alternatives• Degradation mechanisms including compositional and phase stability• Nature of defects, defect tolerance, and passivation strategies• Fundamental electronic and optical properties (carrier dynamics/transport, charge recombination, role of interfaces, ion migration, etc.)• Micro- and nanoscale analysis• Spin effects/spin-orbit coupling• Emerging properties of perovskitesEven though we have gained a better understanding of many phenomena there are still a number of intriguing open questions and more research needed to increase our understanding of this intricate material class.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2196: Perovskite semiconductors: From fundamental properties to devices