Original title: Thermal history controls the optoelectronic response of lead halide perovskites through structure and dynamics
Milos Dubajic, Xia Liang, Johan Klarbring, Yang Lu +25 · September 2026
Lead halide perovskites work well in solar cells, light emitters, and detectors, but their stability remains a major challenge. Past studies focused on ions moving inside a fixed framework. The authors examined another hidden instability within lattice movement. They mapped various perovskite formulas across all accessible phases with radiation scattering, computer simulations, a tilting model, and light-emission imaging. They found that nearly every formula contains fluctuating nanodomains just a few nanometres across. In these tiny zones, molecular cages tilt together and disrupt the overall symmetry. Three levers control this behaviour. The main positive ion sets the nanodomain shape and symmetry. The halide ion sets the dynamic disorder and phase-transition sequence. Finally, thermal history acts as a third lever: different heating or cooling rates push identical materials into distinct phases with their own hidden order. In MAPbI3, the heating rate alone alters the light-emitting efficiency.
Imagine baking a cake. Normally, you follow the same recipe and get the same cake. But if you change how fast you preheat the oven, even with the same ingredients, the cake can turn out differently—maybe denser or fluffier—because the heat affects how the ingredients mix and set. In this paper, the material is like the cake, its ingredients are the chemical components, and the heating rate is like oven preheating. Different heating rates lead to different internal structures, which change how the material performs in devices.
This matters for anyone building solar panels or LEDs from these materials. The way you heat them during production can change how well they work, and that change happens inside the devices as they operate.
The abstract doesn't specify how to control thermal history in practical devices or quantify the exact impact on long-term stability. It focuses on identifying the phenomenon rather than providing manufacturing guidelines.
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Thermal history controls the optoelectronic response of lead halide perovskites through structure and dynamics — Milos Dubajic, Xia Liang, Johan Klarbring et al.
Abstract licence: CC0
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.