Detection of charged particles with a methylammonium lead tribromide perovskite single crystal

Methylammonium lead tribromide (MAPbBr₃) perovskite crystals have attracted significant attention due to their attractive performance in various optoelectronic applications such as solar cells, light-emitting devices, photodetectors, and recently in X-ray detectors. In this study, we demonstrate a possible use of perovskite-based devices for detection of charged particles (which can be applied in basic scientific research, health physics, and environmental analysis) and investigate the mechanism of fundamental charge transport inside perovskite crystals. It was found that inexpensive MAPbBr₃ single crystals could be used for measuring the energy spectrum of charged particles through direct collection of the produced charge. After fitting the plot of the centroid peak position versus voltage with the Hecht equation for single-polarity charge transport, the obtained hole mobility-lifetime product was in the range of (0.4–1.6)×10⁻³ cm²/V.