Tuning spin-orbit coupling towards enhancing photocurrent in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites by using mixed organic cations

The presence of the heavy elements leads to strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIPs), which plays an important role in the photovoltaic performance of HOIPs by changing the populations between bright and dark states. The organic cation is a critical composition and affects SOC via the interaction with the inorganic cage. In this work, we use magneto-photocurrent measurement to explore the SOC effect upon using mixed organic cations (methylammonium (MA) and formamidinium (FA)) with different dipole moments in Pb based perovskites. Magneto-photocurrent measurements showed that the internal magnetic parameter B₀ is decreased from 402.41 mT to 180.18 mT and 104.58 mT with decreasing the MA/FA ratio. This provides evidence that changing the internal dipole moment by using mixed organic cations can essentially change the SOC in HOIPs. Simultaneously, the photocurrent is increased from 21.46 mA/cm² to 22.60 mA/cm² and 23.08 mA/cm² when the MA/FA ratio is changed from 1:0 to 0.9:0.1 and 0.7:0.3. Above all, our results indicate that the change in SOC by different organic cations can also be a factor affecting the performance of perovskite solar cells.