Emerging Lead-Halide Perovskite Semiconductor for Solid-State Detectors

Lead-halide perovskites are a class of emerging semiconducting materials for new-generation solid-state radiation detectors (SSRDs). These materials combine properties like high atomic number elements (i.e., lead and halides), excellent mobility-lifetime product, and high defect tolerance, which are highly desirable for efficient solid-state radiation detectors. Notably, large-scale single crystals can be grown from low-temperature, solution-based methods, that can greatly reduce the cost for scalable SSRD fabrications. In this chapter, we introduce this new class of materials for next-generation SSRDs in five aspects, including material structure, methods to grow single crystals, physical properties, current status on perovskite SSRD development, and the future development of perovskite SSRD. First, the chapter will start by introducing the basic crystal structure of three-dimensional and low-dimensional perovskites and optical spectroscopy and X-ray spectroscopy methods to characterize them. Followed by the introduction, the next section will discuss the approaches of growing high-quality single crystals, including low-temperature solution growth and high-temperature vacuum methods. Third, physical properties, such as electronic transport properties, carrier lifetime, and defect density will be summarized for each perovskite structure. In the same section, we will also discuss the impact of the surface, including doping density and trap states in the perovskite single crystals. Next, current progress on perovskite-based detectors will be thoroughly reviewed. We will review the current status of the development of single-crystal detectors made from 3D and 2D perovskite crystals and polycrystalline thin films. In addition, perovskite scintillators coupled to photodetectors will be briefly introduced in this section. In the final section, we will lay out the current issues in the perovskite detector technologies that remain to be addressed and discuss potential strategies to improve the detectors’ performances.