A Universal Co-Solvent Evaporation Strategy Enables Direct Printing of Perovskite Single Crystals for Optoelectronic Device Applications

Solution-processed metal halide perovskite single crystals (SCs) are in high demand for a growing number of emerging device applications due to their superior optoelectronic properties compared to polycrystalline thin films. However, the historical focus on thin film optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices explains the absence of methods suitable for facile, scalable and high throughput fabrication of precision-engineered and positioned SCs and arrays. Here, we present a universal co-solvent evaporation (CSE) strategy by which perovskite SCsand arrays are produced directly on substrates from individual drying droplets in a single step within minutes at room temperature. The CSE strategy successfully guides supersaturation of drying droplets to suppress all unwanted crystallization pathways and is shown to produce SCsof a wide variety of three-dimensional (3D), quasi-two dimensional (2D), and mixed cation/halideperovskites. The drying droplet approach works with commonly used solvents, making it universal. Importantly, the CSE strategy ensures the SC consumes the precursor in its entirety, leaving little to no residue on substrates, which is crucial for enabling fabrication of SC arrays on large areas via printing and coating techniques. We go on to demonstrate direct on-chip fabrication of 3D and quasi-2D perovskite photodetector devices with outstanding performance. Our approach shows that metal halide perovskite SCs can now be produced on substrates from a drying solution via a wide range of solution processing methods, including microprinting and scalable, high throughput coating methods.