Electronic Properties of Free-Standing Surfactant-Capped Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals Isolated in Vacuo

We report an investigation of lead halide perovskite CH₃NH₃PbBr₃ nanocrystals and associated ligand molecules by combining several different state-of-the-art experimental techniques, including synchrotron radiation-based XPS and VUV PES of free-standing nanocrystals isolated in vacuum. By using this novel approach for perovskite materials, we could directly obtain complete band alignment to vacuum of both CH₃NH₃PbBr₃ nanocrystals and the ligands widely used in their preparation. We discuss the possible influence of the ligand molecules to apparent perovskite properties, and we compare the electronic properties of nanocrystals to those of bulk material. The experimental results were supported by DFT calculations.