Anisotropic In Situ Strain-Engineered Halide Perovskites for High Mechanical Flexibility

Even though halide perovskite materials have been increasingly investigated as flexible devices, mechanical properties under flexible environments have rarely been reported on. Herein, a nonconventional deposition technique that can generate extra compressive or tensile stress in representative inorganic CsPbBr₃ and hybrid MAPbI₃ (methylammonium lead iodide) halide perovskites is proposed for higher mechanical flexibility. As an impressive result of bending fracture evaluation, fracture energy is substantially improved by ≈260% for CsPbBr₃ and ≈161% for MAPbI₃ with the maximum compressive strain of −1.33%. Origin of the flexibility enhancements by the in situ strain is verified with structural simulation where the anisotropic lattice distortion, that is, contraction in the ab plane and elongation along the c-axis, is evident with changes in atomic bond lengths and angles in the halide perovskites. Other mechanical properties such as hardness, film strength, and fracture toughness are also discussed with direct comparisons between the inorganic and hybrid halides. Beyond the successful adjustment of this in situ deposition technique, the strain-dependent mechanical properties are expected to be extensively useful for designing halides-based flexible devices.