Probing the Surface and Bulk Electrical Response of MAPbBr3 Single Crystals

Single crystals (SCs) of halide perovskites are rapidly gaining attention over their polycrystalline thin-film counterparts due to their superior optoelectronic properties. One of the various reasons for their improved properties is the reduced defect concentration as compared with thin films. Since their discovery, many efforts have been devoted to discerning the surface and bulk properties of SCs. However, it is difficult to probe the surface and bulk responses of SCs, and only a few reports distinguishing between these properties have been presented. In this study, we distinguished between the surface and bulk electrical responses of methylammonium lead tribromide (MAPbBr3) SCs using impedance spectroscopy (IS). The electrical response of the MAPbBr3 SC was recorded using different optical excitations for the generation of carriers. The Nyquist plots and capacitance–frequency responses observed under blue and red wavelengths differ significantly from each other and were studied systematically. The results obtained suggest that the photocurrent and capacitive response under blue light are higher than those under red light. Moreover, the change in the low-frequency capacitance is lower in the case of blue light. This is because of the polarization of the interface of metal contacts and the surface of SCs or due to defect-mediated conductivity. As the carriers are collected efficiently from the surface following a rapid process, they do not contribute to the capacitance build-up with temperature. To the best of our knowledge, electrical responses such as the impedance and the capacitive response of SCs using different illumination wavelengths and temperatures have been rarely discussed in the literature.