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Approaching the limits of optoelectronic performance in mixed cation mixed halide perovskites by controlling surface recombination

We demonstrate the critical role of surface recombination in mixed-cation, mixed-halide perovskite, FA0.83Cs0.17Pb(I0.85Br0.15)3. By passivating non-radiative defects with the polymerizable Lewis base (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APTMS) we transform these thin films. We demonstrate average minority carrier lifetimes > 4 μs, nearly single exponential monomolecular PL decays, and concomitantly high external photoluminescence quantum efficiencies (>20%, corresponding to ~97% of the maximum theoretical quasi-Fermi-level splitting) at low excitation fluence. We confirm both the composition and valence band edge position of the FA0.83Cs0.17Pb(I0.85Br0.15)3 perovskite using multi-institution, cross-validated, XPS and UPS measurements. We extend the APTMS surface passivation to higher bandgap double cation (FA,Cs) compositions (1.7 eV, 1.75 eV and 1.8 eV) as well as the widely used triple cation (FA,MA,Cs) composition and observe significant PL and PL lifetime improvements after surface passivation. Finally, we demonstrate that the average surface recombination velocity (SRV) decreases from ~1000 cm/s to ~10 cm/s post APTMS passivation for FA0.83Cs0.17Pb(I0.85Br0.15)3. Our results demonstrate that surface-mediated recombination is the primary non-radiative loss pathway in MA-free mixed-cation mixed-halide films with a range of different bandgaps, which is a problem observed for a wide range of perovskite active layers and reactive electrical contacts. This study indicates that surface passivation and contact engineering will enable near-theoretical device efficiencies with these materials.