A hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite with robust SHG switching

Owing to the diversity of structure and potential applications in the field of electrics, sensors, and light-emitting diodes, lead halide perovskites have attracted great attention in recent years. Especially those lead halide perovskites with non-centrosymmetric crystal structures usually exhibit nonlinear optical (NLO) characteristics, which may endow them photoelectricity switching functionality. In this work, a lead-based hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite (HOIP) material, trimethyliodomethylammonium lead trichloride (TMIM·PbCl3), is obtained on the basis of tetramethylammonium lead chloride through halogen substitution on the cation part. It shows dual-phase-transition behavior around 345 and 358 K, which is significantly improved. TMIM·PbCl3 crystallizes in the chiral space group, P212121, and shows a well-defined second harmonic generation (SHG) response, and good switching endurance, which makes it an excellent candidate for SHG switching material. This work highlights the importance of halogen substitution for crystal engineering and may pave way for the further exploration of the optoelectronic devices.