Project I – Growth of Single Crystal Transition Metal Perovskite Chalcogenides
Description / Outline
In recent years semiconducting organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite materials have gained much interest due to their outstanding optoelectronic properties for use in solar cells and lighting applications. A major drawback of these materials is related to their toxicity and chemical instability. Recently, purely inorganic transition metal perovskite chalcogenides (TMPC) have been synthesized that exhibit promising optoelectronic properties as well and may even allow opto- electrochemical application like water splitting. Compared to their perovskite oxide counterparts of type ABO3 (A = alkali, alkaline, or rare earth metal, B = transition metal) with a large electronic bandgap (EG > 3eV), many perovskite chalcogenides exhibit an electronic bandgap in visible light spectrum that is related to the replacement of O by S or Se in the crystal lattice and which may enable a broad spectrum of applications.
This project aims to grow single crystals of SrZrS3, BaZrS3, and related transition metal perovskite chalcogenides. This includes: (i) the investigation of the thermodynamic properties related to the phase diagram of the materials as well as chemical reaction kinetics (including the intermediate phases) that is present during materials synthesis; (ii) the application of this knowledge to determine / elaborate the processing routes that include hetero-epitaxial layers on pre-structured semiconductor wafers; and (iii) the investigation of the fundamental physical properties as well as the typical materials defects of the newly formed materials.