Most existing chiral materials are organic and conduct electricity poorly
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Scientists at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, have discovered how to control the crystallisation of chiral perovskite films — materials that can be used to build advanced devices, like circularly polarised light (CPL) detectors, spintronic components, and photonic synapses.
Chirality — when a structure is not superimposable on its mirror image — is a property seen in everything from DNA to spiral galaxies. In materials, it enables unique interactions with light and electrons, such as detecting circularly polarised light or controlling electron spin. These effects are key to emerging technologies in quantum computing, sensing, and optoelectronics.
Most existing chiral materials are organic and conduct electricity poorly. Halide perovskites, however, excel at charge transport and possess tunable properties. By combining chiral molecules with low-dimensional halide perovskites, scientists can create hybrid materials with improved performance — but controlling how these films crystallise has been a major challenge.
The CeNS team studied thin films of methylbenzylammonium copper bromide ((R/S-MBA)₂CuBr₄) and found that crystal growth begins at the air-film interface and moves toward the substrate. Impurities form when solvent gets trapped during cooling, but careful solvent choice and vacuum processing can suppress these defects.
This insight offers a practical recipe for producing phase-pure, oriented chiral perovskite filmspaving the way for efficient and scalable CPL detectors and other quantum optoelectronic devices. With India’s expanding semiconductor research base, such advances could help place the country in the vanguard of next-generation light-based technologies.
Published on October 6, 2025
