Improved electronic transport properties of tin-halide perovskites

•DFT is used to study the electronic transport in tin-based halide perovskites.•The electronic transport can be enhanced by Pb-Sn replacement.•Transport properties of Sn-based samples are less affected by relativistic effects.•This shows possibility of enhancing charge carrier transport by metal atom mixing.

Density functional theory in combination with the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism is used to study the electronic transport properties of MAPbI3, MASnI3 and mixed-MAPb0.5Sn0.5I3 perovskites (MA-methylammonium). The largest electronic transport is obtained for tin-halide sample due to the delocalization of electronic states in the system. The mixed sample also shows improved transport properties as compared to the lead-halide system. In addition, tin-based perovskites are less sensitive to the spin-orbit interactions, whereas the electronic transport properties of MAPbI3 are strongly affected by the relativistic effects. These findings indicate the possibility of enhancing charge carrier transport in organometallic perovskites by metal atom mixing.