The ultrafast polarization response to incident light and ensuing exciton/carrier generation are essential to outstanding optoelectronic properties of lead halide perovskites (LHPs). A large number of mechanistic studies in the LHP field to date have focused on contributions to polarizability from organic cations and the highly polarizable inorganic lattice. For a comprehensive understanding of the ultrafast polarization response, we must additionally account for the nearly instantaneous hyperpolarizability response to the propagating light field itself. While light propagation is pivotal to optoelectronics and photonics, little is known about this in LHPs in the vicinity of the bandgap where stimulated emission, polariton condensation, superfluorescence, and photon recycling may take place. Here we develop two-dimensional optical Kerr effect (2D-OKE) spectroscopy to energetically dissect broadband light propagation and dispersive nonlinear polarization responses in LHPs. In contrast to earlier interpretations, the below-bandgap OKE responses in both hybrid CH3NH3PbBr3 and all-inorganic CsPbBr3 perovskites are found to originate from strong hyperpolarizability and highly anisotropic dispersions. In both materials, the nonlinear mixing of anisotropically propagating light fields results in convoluted oscillatory polarization dynamics. Based on a four-wave mixing model, we quantitatively derive dispersion anisotropies, reproduce 2D-OKE frequency correlations, and establish polarization-dressed light propagation in single-crystal LHPs. Moreover, our findings highlight the importance of distinguishing the often-neglected anisotropic light propagation from underlying coherent quasiparticle responses in various forms of ultrafast spectroscopy.

Quadruple cation mixed halide perovskite, GA0.015Cs0.046MA0.152FA0.787Pb­(I0.815Br0.185)3, single crystals were grown for the first time using an inverse temperature crystallization process. Solar cell devices in n-i-p stack configuration using thin films of the same materials showed power conversion efficiency above 20%. Complementary time-resolved spectroscopy confirmed that polycrystalline thin films and single crystals identically composed exhibit similar carrier dynamics in the picosecond range. Cooling of excited carriers and bandgap renormalization occur on the same time scale of 200–300 fs. The radiative recombination coefficient (1.2 × 10–9 cm3/s) is comparable to values reported for a GaAs semiconductor. At low excitation density, a long carrier lifetime of 3.2 μs was recorded possibly due to the passivation of recombination centers. This study clarifies discrepancies about the lifetime of hot carriers, the impact of radiative recombination, and the role of recombination centers on solar cell performance. The quadruple cation perovskites displayed short time dynamics with slow recombination of charge carriers.