Ion mobility independent large signal switching of perovskite devices

Abstract

The presence of mobile ions in perovskites is well known to influence the device electrostatics leading to a wide variety of anomalous characteristics related to hysteresis, efficiency degradation, low frequency capacitance, large signal switching, etc. Accordingly, the ion mobility is understood to a have a critical influence on the associated time constants/delays. Quite contrary to this broadly accepted thought, here we suggest that the time delays associated with large signal switching could show a universal behavior dictated by electronic dipoles, rather than ionic dipoles. Due to the resultant sudden and dramatic collapse of a contact layer depletion region, large signal switching delays are independent of ion mobilities. Furthermore, our detailed numerical simulations, supported by experimental results, indicate that terminal currents show a near steady state behavior well ahead of the relaxation of ionic distributions. These results have interesting implications toward the understanding and optimization of perovskite based electronic devices, including solar cells, LEDs, resistive memories, and ferroelectric memories.