Lead–halide perovskites for next-generation self-powered photodetectors.

What is it about?

Metal halide perovskites have aroused tremendous interest in optoelectronics due to their attractive properties, encouraging the development of high-performance devices for emerging application domains such as wearable electronics and the Internet of Things. Specifically, the development of high-performance perovskite-based photodetectors (PDs) as an ultimate substitute for conventional PDs made of inorganic semiconductors such as silicon, InGaAs, GaN, and germanium-based commercial PDs, attracts great attention by virtue of its solution processing, film deposition technique, and tunable optical properties. Importantly, perovskite PDs can also deliver high performance without an external power source; so-called self-powered perovskite photodetectors (SPPDs) have found eminent application in next-generation nanodevices operating independently, wirelessly, and remotely. Earlier research reports indicate that perovskite-based SPPDs have excellent photoresponsive behavior and wideband spectral response ranges. Despite the high-performance perovskite PDs, their commercialization is hindered by long-term material instability under ambient conditions. This review aims to provide a comprehensive compilation of the research results on self-powered, lead–halide perovskite PDs. In addition, a brief introduction is given to flexible SPPDs. Finally, we put forward some perspectives on the further development of perovskite-based self-powered PDs. We believe that this review can provide state-of-the-art current research on SPPDs and serve as a guide to improvising a path for enhancing the performance to meet the versatility of practical device applications.

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Why is it important?

The innovation of functional materials with tunable optoelectronic properties will take essential positions in the development of fundamental and applied research fields. Metal halide perovskite materials with a typical crystal structure such as CaTiO3 would evolve into an outstanding semiconductor counterpart to surpass all traditional materials in the optoelectronic field . The general chemical formula of perovskites is ABX3, where “A” and “B” are two cations of very different sizes and “X” is an anion that bonds to both “A” and “B.” Progress has been achieved in synthesis, structural characterization, and investigations of physical properties of perovskite compounds in the form of three-dimensional (3D) bulk crystals, two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets, one-dimensional (1D) nanorods or nanowires, and zero-dimensional (0D) quantum dots (QDs) or nanocrystals .

Perspectives