Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE) have discovered a groundbreaking method to induce chirality in halide perovskite semiconductors. This advancement could pave the way for innovative electronic applications.
The study reveals how the structure of halide perovskites is distorted when interacting with chiral molecules, as illustrated in their recent publication. Chirality, which refers to structures that cannot be superimposed on their mirror images (like hands), allows for enhanced control over electron spin. While traditional optoelectronic devices primarily manage charge and light, this research focuses on spin control.
The team successfully developed a spin-polarized LED using chiral perovskite semiconductors without requiring extremely low temperatures or magnetic fields. This latest progress accelerates the development of materials for effective spin control.
The findings are detailed in the paper titled “Remote Chirality Transfer in Low-Dimensional Hybrid Metal Halide Semiconductors,” published in Nature Chemistry. The key discovery involved introducing a chiral molecule with a different headgroup into the perovskite, which does not integrate into the lattice but distorts its structure from the surface. Md Azimul Haque, the paper’s first author, noted that traditional methods of incorporating chirality into low-dimensional perovskite semiconductors require the chiral molecule to be part of the perovskite lattice, necessitating extensive analysis with each composition change. This new approach allows for the simpler and faster transfer of properties from a nearby chiral molecule without altering the perovskite composition.
“We can create materials with known properties now with added chirality very easily compared to traditional methods,” said Haque, a postdoctoral researcher. “The next step is to experiment with the materials and incorporate them into new applications.” His coauthors from NREL are Steven Harvey, Roman Brunecky, Jiselle Ye, Bennett Addison, Yifan Dong, Matthew Hautzinger, Kai Zhu, Jeffrey Blackburn, Joseph Berry, and Matt Beard. Other coauthors from CHOISE include Andrew Grieder, Yuan Ping, Junxiang Zhang, Seth R. Marder, Heshan Hewa Walpitage, Zeev Valy Vardeny, Yi Xie, and David B. Mitzi.
