Investigation of the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of halide perovskite semiconductors

Halide perovskite semiconductors possess many excellent optoelectronic properties making them suitable for a variety of devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes and photodetectors. Recently it has been shown that some family of these materials shows ferroelectricity and piezoelectric properties. Ferroelectric materials possess spontaneous polarization even in the absence of an external electric field and find applications in memory devices, energy harvesting, and radiofrequency and microwave devices. The piezoelectric properties would enable the development of ambient mechanical energy harvesters to self-power the small electronic components in the Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable electronics (WE). Even though halide perovskite semiconductors have been thoroughly explored for solar cell applications, their other energy harvesting applications are little explored.

In the proposed project, hybrid perovskite-based thin films will be investigated for their ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. The ferroelectric properties will be explored using the P-E loop (polarisation-electric field) and piezo-force microscopy (PFM) method. Piezoelectric charge coefficient will be optimized as a function of different halide perovskite compositions to maximise the output power. The project would mainly involve the optimisation of ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties and develop the composition with the optimized properties towards a thin-film based ambient mechanical energy harvester to generate useful electricity to power small electronic components such as temperature sensors applicable to the IoT systems.