Kinetically Arrested Twin-Domain State in Formamidinium Lead Iodide

Abstract

Hybrid lead halide perovskites exhibit a delicate interplay between average crystallographic symmetry, local structural disorder and A-site orientational dynamics, giving rise to unusual vibrational and electronic behavior. Here, we combine large-scale molecular dynamics with a density-functional-theory-accurate machine learning force field to resolve the structural dynamics of perovskites across mesoscopic length scales. In formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3), we identify a high-temperature α phase with dynamic local order and correlated tilt nanodomains, an ordered γ phase with long-range a+a+a+ tilt coherence, and, below ∼100 K, a history-dependent γ′ state consisting of locally γ-like nanoscale regions separated by sharp twin-like boundaries. This low-temperature disordered state is not a distinct bulk polymorph, but a kinetically arrested metastable twin-domain network selected by the interplay between shallow tilt energetics and slowing FA reorientation. This picture is supported by our low-temperature X-ray diffuse scattering measurements and accounts for the broadened low-energy vibrational response found in the simulations. Furthermore, this unique structural landscape imprints a spatially varying electronic disorder with implications for macroscopic optoelectronic properties, reflected in substantial band-edge broadening retained at low temperature. Our results reconcile the debated low-temperature behavior of FAPbI3 in terms of competition between ordered and arrested structural states, and more broadly identify molecular reorientation as a kinetic selector of metastable framework topology in soft molecular crystals, placing thermal history on equal footing with composition as a determinant of structural and optoelectronic properties.