Structural Dynamics of Metal Halide Perovskites during Photoinduced Halide Segregation

Despite substantial research effort, photoinduced halide segregation in mixed halide perovskites continues to limit the available perovskite chemistries for use in optoelectronic applications. In this study, we present new insights into halide-segregation process through in situ X-ray diffraction measurements that reveal substantial structural changes in mixed-halide perovskites under excitation. We observe that photoinduced halide segregation leads to the formation of one iodide-rich and one bromide-rich perovskite composition whose Br:I ratios are the same (at 20 and 93% bromine, respectively), for a range of compositions of the pristine initial perovskite phase. This segregation reverses in the dark to re-form a mixed halide perovskite with the same lattice spacing as the pristine perovskite. From these results, we determine a kinetic rate for the formation and dissolution of these new crystalline phases and observe that the crystalline orientation is preserved through the light-segregation and dark-relaxation processes. Our results are consistent with a model of halide segregation where excitation causes changes in the free energy of mixing and ultimately the formation of a miscibility gap in the MAPb­(I_xBr_1–x)₃ phase diagram and should inform future works to model and manipulate the halide-segregation process in mixed-halide perovskites.