Unified theory for light-induced halide segregation in mixed halide perovskites

Mixed halide perovskites that are thermodynamically stable in the dark demix under illumination. This is problematic for their application in solar cells. We present a unified thermodynamic theory for this light-induced halide segregation that is based on a free energy lowering of photocarriers funnelling to a nucleated phase with different halide composition and lower band gap than the parent phase. We apply the theory to a sequence of mixed iodine-bromine perovskites. The spinodals separating metastable and unstable regions in the composition-temperature phase diagrams only slightly change under illumination, while light-induced binodals separating stable and metastable regions appear signalling the nucleation of a low-band gap iodine-rich phase. We find that the threshold photocarrier density for halide segregation is governed by the band gap difference of the parent and iodine-rich phase. Partial replacement of organic cations by cesium reduces this difference and therefore has a stabilizing effect. Mixed halide perovskite undergoes halide segregation under illumination, which impairs its functionality as solar cells. Bobbert et al. present a unified thermodynamic theory to explain the phase separation behaviour that takes into account both ground state compositional and electronic part of free energy in the presence of photocarriers.