Artifacts in Absorption Measurements of Organometal Halide Perovskite Materials: What Are the Real Spectra?

Organometal halide (OMH) perovskites have attracted lots of attention over the last several years due to their very promising performance as the materials for solar cells and light-emitting devices. Photophysical processes in these hybrid organic inorganic semiconductors are still heavily debated. To know precise absorption spectra is absolutely necessary for quantitative understanding of the fundamental properties of OMH perovskites. We show that to measure the absorption of perovskite materials correctly is a difficult task which could be easily overlooked by the community. Many of the published absorption spectra exhibit a characteristic step-like featureless shape due to light scattering, high optical density of individual perovskite crystals and poor coverage of the substrate. We show how to recognize these artifacts, to avoid them, and to use absorption spectra of films for estimation of the surface coverage ratio.