Fedwa El-Mellouhi

Revealing the role of organic cations in hybrid halide perovskite CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3

The hybrid halide perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 has enabled solar cells to reach an efficiency of about 20%, demonstrating a pace for improvements with no precedents in the solar energy arena. Despite such explosive progress, the microscopic origin behind the success of such material is still debated, with the role played by the organic cations in the light-harvesting process remaining unclear. Here van der Waals-corrected density functional theory calculations reveal that the orientation of the organic molecules plays a fundamental role in determining the material electronic properties. For instance, if CH3NH3 orients along a (011)-like direction, the PbI6 octahedral cage will distort and the bandgap will become indirect. Our results suggest that molecular rotations, with the consequent dynamical change of the band structure, might be at the origin of the slow carrier recombination and the superior conversion efficiency of CH3NH3PbI3.

Charge carrier mobility in hybrid halide perovskites.

The charge transport properties of hybrid halide perovskites are investigated with a combination of density functional theory including van der Waals interaction and the Boltzmann theory for diffusive transport in the relaxation time approximation. We find the mobility of electrons to be in the range 5–10 cm2V−1s−1 and that for holes within 1–5 cm2V−1s−1, where the variations depend on the crystal structure investigated and the level of doping. Such results, in good agreement with recent experiments, set the relaxation time to about 1 ps, which is the time-scale for the molecular rotation at room temperature. For the room temperature tetragonal phase we explore two possible orientations of the organic cations and find that the mobility has a significant asymmetry depending on the direction of the current with respect to the molecular axis. This is due mostly to the way the PbI3 octahedral symmetry is broken. Interestingly we find that substituting I with Cl has minor effects on the mobilities. Our analysis suggests that the carrier mobility is probably not a key factor in determining the high solar-harvesting efficiency of this class of materials.

Kinetic activation-relaxation technique: An off-lattice self-learning kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm

Many materials science phenomena, such as growth and self-organisation, are dominated by activated diffusion processes and occur on timescales that are well beyond the reach of standard-molecular dynamics simulations. Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) schemes make it possible to overcome this limitation and achieve experimental timescales. However, most KMC approaches proceed by discretizing the problem in space in order to identify, from the outset, a fixed set of barriers that are used throughout the simulations, limiting the range of problems that can be addressed. Here, we propose a more flexible approach -- the kinetic activation-relaxation technique (k-ART) -- which lifts these constraints. Our method is based on an off-lattice, self-learning, on-the-fly identification and evaluation of activation barriers using ART and a topological description of events. The validity and power of the method are demonstrated through the study of vacancy diffusion in crystalline silicon.

Kinetic activation-relaxation technique.

We present a detailed description of the kinetic activation-relaxation technique (k-ART), an off-lattice, self-learning kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) algorithm with on-the-fly event search. Combining a topological classification for local environments and event generation with ART nouveau, an efficient unbiased sampling method for finding transition states, k-ART can be applied to complex materials with atoms in off-lattice positions or with elastic deformations that cannot be handled with standard KMC approaches. In addition to presenting the various elements of the algorithm, we demonstrate the general character of k-ART by applying the algorithm to three challenging systems: self-defect annihilation in c-Si (crystalline silicon), self-interstitial diffusion in Fe, and structural relaxation in a-Si (amorphous silicon).

Sampling the diffusion paths of a neutral vacancy in silicon with quantum mechanical calculations

We report a first-principles study of vacancy-induced self-diffusion in crystalline silicon. Starting from a fully relaxed configuration with a neutral vacancy, we proceed to search for local diffusion paths. The diffusion of the vacancy proceeds by hops to first nearest neighbor with an energy barrier of

The Activation-Relaxation Technique: ART Nouveau and Kinetic ART

0.40\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}

Domain Walls Conductivity in Hybrid Organometallic Perovskites and Their Essential Role in CH3NH3PbI3 Solar Cell High Performance.

in agreement with experimental results. Competing mechanisms are identified, such as the reorientation, and the recombination of dangling bonds by Wooten-Winer-Weaire process.

Structural phase transitions of the metal oxide perovskites SrTiO3, LaAlO3, and LaTiO3 studied with a screened hybrid functional

The evolution of many systems is dominated by rare activated events that occur on timescale ranging from nanoseconds to the hour or more. For such systems, simulations must leave aside the full thermal description to focus specifically on mechanisms that generate a configurational change. We present here the activation relaxation technique (ART), an open-ended saddle point search algorithm, and a series of recent improvements to ART nouveau and kinetic ART, an ART-based on-the-fly off-lattice self-learning kinetic Monte Carlo method.

Hydrogen Bonding and Stability of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskites.

The past several years has witnessed a surge of interest in organometallic trihalide perovskites, which are at the heart of the new generation of solid-state solar cells. Here, we calculated the static conductivity of charged domain walls in n- and p- doped organometallic uniaxial ferroelectric semiconductor perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 using the Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) theory. We find that due to the charge carrier accumulation, the static conductivity may drastically increase at the domain wall by 3 – 4 orders of magnitude in comparison with conductivity through the bulk of the material. Also, a two-dimensional degenerated gas of highly mobile charge carriers could be formed at the wall. The high values of conductivity at domain walls and interfaces explain high efficiency in organometallic solution-processed perovskite films which contains lots of different point and extended defects. These results could suggest new routes to enhance the performance of this promising class of novel photovoltaic materials.

Electronic transport in organometallic perovskite CH3NH3PbI3: The role of organic cation orientations

We have investigated the structural phase transitions of the transition metal oxide perovskites SrTiO3, LaAlO3, and LaTiO3 using the screened hybrid density functional of Heyd, Scuseria, and Ernzerhof (HSE06). We show that HSE06-computed lattice parameters, octahedral tilts, and rotations, as well as electronic properties, are significantly improved over semilocal functionals. We predict the crystal-field splitting (� CF) resulting from the structural phase transition in SrTiO3 and LaAlO3 to be 3 meV and 10 meV, respectively, in excellent agreement with experimental results. HSE06 identifies correctly LaTiO3 in the magnetic states as a Mott insulator. Also, � ( ◦ )