Solution-Processed CsPbBr3 Perovskite Photodetectors for Cost-Efficient Underwater Wireless Optical Communication System

Abstract

Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) has attracted increasing attention due to its advantages in bandwidth, latency, interference resistance, and security. Photodetectors, as a crucial part of receivers, have been continuously developed with the great progress that has been made in advanced materials. Metal halide perovskites emerging as promising optoelectronic materials in the past decade have been used to fabricate various high-performance photodetectors. In this work, high-performance CsPbBr3 perovskite PDs were realized via solution process, with low noise, a high responsivity, and a fast response. Based on these perovskite PDs, a cost-efficient UWOC system was successfully demonstrated on an FPGA platform, achieving a data rate of 6.25 Mbps with a low bit error rate of 0.36%. Due to lower background noise under environment illumination, perovskite PDs exhibit better communication stability before reaching a data rate threshold; however, the BER increases rapidly due to the long fall time, resulting in difficulty in distinguishing switching signals. Reducing the fall time of perovskite PDs and using advanced coding techniques can help to further improve the performance of the UWOC system based on perovskite PDs. This work not only demonstrates the potential of perovskite PDs in the application of UWOC, but also improves the development of a cost-effective UWOC system based on FPGAs.