Experimental Demonstration of Correlated Flux Scaling in Photoconductivity and Photoluminescence of Lead-Halide Perovskites

Lead-halide perovskites attract attention as materials for high-efficiency solar cells and light-emitting applications. Among their attributes are solution processability, high absorbance in the visible spectral range, and defect tolerance, as manifested in long photocarrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths. The microscopic origin of photophysical properties of perovskites is, however, still unclear and under debate. Here, we observe an interesting universal scaling behavior in a series of (hybrid and all-inorganic) perovskite single crystals investigated via simultaneous measurements of the Hall effect, photoconductivity, and photoluminescence. A clear correlation between photoconductivity and photoluminescence as functions of the incident photon flux is observed. While photoconductivity exhibits a crossover in the power-law dependence between power exponents 1 and 1/2, photoluminescence exhibits a crossover between power exponents 2 and 3/2. This correlation is found in all the studied compounds regardless of the cation type (organic or inorganic) or crystallographic phases. We propose phenomenological microscopic mechanisms that explain these interesting nontrivial power exponents and crossovers between them in this broad class of lead-halide perovskites.