Comparative study of the structural and electronic properties of orthorhombic CH3NH3PbI3 hybrid perovskite for solar cell applications

The structural and electronic properties of orthorhombic methyl ammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3 ) were investigated using the first principles density functional theory within the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA).The lattice parameters obtained using the GGA were slightly greater than that obtained using the LDA. The total density of states and the electronic structure of the compound show that it is a direct band gap semiconductor. Our results are in agreement with the previous experimental and theoretical results and suggests that orthorhombic CH3NH3PbI3 compound is very promising in photovoltaic energy harvesting