Demonstration of energy-resolved γ-ray detection at room temperature by the CsPBCl3 perovskite semiconductor

Yihui He; Constantinos C. Stoumpos; Ido Hadar; Zhongzhen Luo; Kyle M. McCall; Zhifu Liu; Duck Young Chung; Bruce W. Wessels; Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

doi:10.1021/jacs.0c12254

Demonstration of energy-resolved γ-ray detection at room temperature by the CsPBCl₃ perovskite semiconductor

Yihui He, Constantinos C. Stoumpos, Ido Hadar, Zhongzhen Luo, Kyle M. McCall, Zhifu Liu, Duck Young Chung, Bruce W. Wessels, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

The detection of γ-rays at room temperature with high-energy resolution using semiconductors is one of the most challenging applications. The presence of even the smallest amount of defects is sufficient to kill the signal generated from γ-rays which makes the availability of semiconductors detectors a rarity. Lead halide perovskite semiconductors exhibit unusually high defect tolerance leading to outstanding and unique optoelectronic properties and are poised to strongly impact applications in photoelectric conversion/detection. Here we demonstrate for the first time that large size single crystals of the all-inorganic perovskite CsPbCl₃ semiconductor can function as a high-performance detector for γ-ray nuclear radiation at room temperature. CsPbCl₃ is a wide-gap semiconductor with a bandgap of 3.03 eV and possesses a high effective atomic number of 69.8. We identified the two distinct phase transitions in CsPbCl₃, from cubic (Pm-3m) to tetragonal (P4/mbm) at 325 K and finally to orthorhombic (Pbnm) at 316 K. Despite crystal twinning induced by phase transitions, CsPbCl₃ crystals in detector grade can be obtained with high electrical resistivity of ∼1.7 × 10⁹ Ω·cm. The crystals were grown from the melt with volume over several cubic centimeters and have a low thermal conductivity of 0.6 W m^-1 K^-1. The mobilities for electron and hole carriers were determined to ∼30 cm²/(V s). Using photoemission yield spectroscopy in air (PYSA), we determined the valence band maximum at 5.66 ± 0.05 eV. Under γ-ray exposure, our Schottky-type planar CsPbCl₃ detector achieved an excellent energy resolution (∼16% at 122 keV) accompanied by a high figure-of-merit hole mobility-lifetime product (3.2 × 10^-4 cm²/V) and a long hole lifetime (16 μs). The results demonstrate considerable defect tolerance of CsPbCl₃ and suggest its strong potential for γ-radiation and X-ray detection at room temperature and above.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	2068-2077
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of the American Chemical Society
Volume	143
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.0c12254
State	Published - 3 Feb 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The project or effort depicted was sponsored in part by the Department of the Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, under Award HDTRA1-20-2-0002. At Argonne this work was also supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. Use of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. PYSA measurements were performed with equipment acquired by ONR Grant N00014-18-1-2102. The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Chemical Society.

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title = "Demonstration of energy-resolved γ-ray detection at room temperature by the CsPBCl3 perovskite semiconductor",

abstract = "The detection of γ-rays at room temperature with high-energy resolution using semiconductors is one of the most challenging applications. The presence of even the smallest amount of defects is sufficient to kill the signal generated from γ-rays which makes the availability of semiconductors detectors a rarity. Lead halide perovskite semiconductors exhibit unusually high defect tolerance leading to outstanding and unique optoelectronic properties and are poised to strongly impact applications in photoelectric conversion/detection. Here we demonstrate for the first time that large size single crystals of the all-inorganic perovskite CsPbCl3 semiconductor can function as a high-performance detector for γ-ray nuclear radiation at room temperature. CsPbCl3 is a wide-gap semiconductor with a bandgap of 3.03 eV and possesses a high effective atomic number of 69.8. We identified the two distinct phase transitions in CsPbCl3, from cubic (Pm-3m) to tetragonal (P4/mbm) at 325 K and finally to orthorhombic (Pbnm) at 316 K. Despite crystal twinning induced by phase transitions, CsPbCl3 crystals in detector grade can be obtained with high electrical resistivity of ∼1.7 × 109 Ω·cm. The crystals were grown from the melt with volume over several cubic centimeters and have a low thermal conductivity of 0.6 W m-1 K-1. The mobilities for electron and hole carriers were determined to ∼30 cm2/(V s). Using photoemission yield spectroscopy in air (PYSA), we determined the valence band maximum at 5.66 ± 0.05 eV. Under γ-ray exposure, our Schottky-type planar CsPbCl3 detector achieved an excellent energy resolution (∼16% at 122 keV) accompanied by a high figure-of-merit hole mobility-lifetime product (3.2 × 10-4 cm2/V) and a long hole lifetime (16 μs). The results demonstrate considerable defect tolerance of CsPbCl3 and suggest its strong potential for γ-radiation and X-ray detection at room temperature and above.",

author = "Yihui He and Stoumpos, {Constantinos C.} and Ido Hadar and Zhongzhen Luo and McCall, {Kyle M.} and Zhifu Liu and Chung, {Duck Young} and Wessels, {Bruce W.} and Kanatzidis, {Mercouri G.}",

note = "Funding Information: The project or effort depicted was sponsored in part by the Department of the Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, under Award HDTRA1-20-2-0002. At Argonne this work was also supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. Use of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. PYSA measurements were performed with equipment acquired by ONR Grant N00014-18-1-2102. The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 American Chemical Society.",

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AU - He, Yihui

AU - Stoumpos, Constantinos C.

AU - Hadar, Ido

AU - Luo, Zhongzhen

AU - McCall, Kyle M.

AU - Liu, Zhifu

AU - Chung, Duck Young

AU - Wessels, Bruce W.

AU - Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.

N1 - Funding Information: The project or effort depicted was sponsored in part by the Department of the Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, under Award HDTRA1-20-2-0002. At Argonne this work was also supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. Use of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. PYSA measurements were performed with equipment acquired by ONR Grant N00014-18-1-2102. The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 American Chemical Society.

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N2 - The detection of γ-rays at room temperature with high-energy resolution using semiconductors is one of the most challenging applications. The presence of even the smallest amount of defects is sufficient to kill the signal generated from γ-rays which makes the availability of semiconductors detectors a rarity. Lead halide perovskite semiconductors exhibit unusually high defect tolerance leading to outstanding and unique optoelectronic properties and are poised to strongly impact applications in photoelectric conversion/detection. Here we demonstrate for the first time that large size single crystals of the all-inorganic perovskite CsPbCl3 semiconductor can function as a high-performance detector for γ-ray nuclear radiation at room temperature. CsPbCl3 is a wide-gap semiconductor with a bandgap of 3.03 eV and possesses a high effective atomic number of 69.8. We identified the two distinct phase transitions in CsPbCl3, from cubic (Pm-3m) to tetragonal (P4/mbm) at 325 K and finally to orthorhombic (Pbnm) at 316 K. Despite crystal twinning induced by phase transitions, CsPbCl3 crystals in detector grade can be obtained with high electrical resistivity of ∼1.7 × 109 Ω·cm. The crystals were grown from the melt with volume over several cubic centimeters and have a low thermal conductivity of 0.6 W m-1 K-1. The mobilities for electron and hole carriers were determined to ∼30 cm2/(V s). Using photoemission yield spectroscopy in air (PYSA), we determined the valence band maximum at 5.66 ± 0.05 eV. Under γ-ray exposure, our Schottky-type planar CsPbCl3 detector achieved an excellent energy resolution (∼16% at 122 keV) accompanied by a high figure-of-merit hole mobility-lifetime product (3.2 × 10-4 cm2/V) and a long hole lifetime (16 μs). The results demonstrate considerable defect tolerance of CsPbCl3 and suggest its strong potential for γ-radiation and X-ray detection at room temperature and above.

AB - The detection of γ-rays at room temperature with high-energy resolution using semiconductors is one of the most challenging applications. The presence of even the smallest amount of defects is sufficient to kill the signal generated from γ-rays which makes the availability of semiconductors detectors a rarity. Lead halide perovskite semiconductors exhibit unusually high defect tolerance leading to outstanding and unique optoelectronic properties and are poised to strongly impact applications in photoelectric conversion/detection. Here we demonstrate for the first time that large size single crystals of the all-inorganic perovskite CsPbCl3 semiconductor can function as a high-performance detector for γ-ray nuclear radiation at room temperature. CsPbCl3 is a wide-gap semiconductor with a bandgap of 3.03 eV and possesses a high effective atomic number of 69.8. We identified the two distinct phase transitions in CsPbCl3, from cubic (Pm-3m) to tetragonal (P4/mbm) at 325 K and finally to orthorhombic (Pbnm) at 316 K. Despite crystal twinning induced by phase transitions, CsPbCl3 crystals in detector grade can be obtained with high electrical resistivity of ∼1.7 × 109 Ω·cm. The crystals were grown from the melt with volume over several cubic centimeters and have a low thermal conductivity of 0.6 W m-1 K-1. The mobilities for electron and hole carriers were determined to ∼30 cm2/(V s). Using photoemission yield spectroscopy in air (PYSA), we determined the valence band maximum at 5.66 ± 0.05 eV. Under γ-ray exposure, our Schottky-type planar CsPbCl3 detector achieved an excellent energy resolution (∼16% at 122 keV) accompanied by a high figure-of-merit hole mobility-lifetime product (3.2 × 10-4 cm2/V) and a long hole lifetime (16 μs). The results demonstrate considerable defect tolerance of CsPbCl3 and suggest its strong potential for γ-radiation and X-ray detection at room temperature and above.

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Demonstration of energy-resolved γ-ray detection at room temperature by the CsPBCl₃ perovskite semiconductor

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