As described herein, the dark count rate (DCR) of perovskite photon-counting detectors (PCDs) was dominated by charge de-trapping from shallow traps located at the grain boundaries and surface, and the ultra-low DCR was achieved by suppressing the shallow traps by enhancing grain size and passivating film surface with diphenyl sulfide. The suppression of shallow traps made the perovskite PCDs have 100-1000 times lower DCR and much better response linearity to weak light than SiPMs. and the DCR was not sensitive to temperature due to small activation energy of charge traps. The zero-bias operating perovskite PCDs were demonstrated as -ray spectrum detectors with better energy resolution under .sup.57Co source than commercial SiPMs at room temperature. At higher temperature up to 85 C. the perovskite PCDs are much superior to SiPMs by maintaining the energy resolution, showing their potential of working in harsh environment. This study discovered regular surface passivation also dramatically impact shallow charge traps, which should have implication of perovskite stability and doping.

As described herein, the dark count rate (DCR) of perovskite photon-counting detectors (PCDs) was dominated by charge de-trapping from shallow traps located at the grain boundaries and surface, and the ultra-low DCR was achieved by suppressing the shallow traps by enhancing grain size and passivating film surface with diphenyl sulfide. The suppression of shallow traps made the perovskite PCDs have 100-1000 times lower DCR and much better response linearity to weak light than SiPMs. and the DCR was not sensitive to temperature due to small activation energy of charge traps. The zero-bias operating perovskite PCDs were demonstrated as -ray spectrum detectors with better energy resolution under .sup.57Co source than commercial SiPMs at room temperature. At higher temperature up to 85 C. the perovskite PCDs are much superior to SiPMs by maintaining the energy resolution, showing their potential of working in harsh environment. This study discovered regular surface passivation also dramatically impact shallow charge traps, which should have implication of perovskite stability and doping.