Elastic and Anelastic Behavior Associated with Structural Transitions in CsPbBr₃

Strain coupling and relaxation dynamics critically influence the photovoltaic and photoluminescent performances of metal halide perovskites. Here, resonant ultrasound spectroscopy is employed to study the elastic and anelastic properties associated with the octahedral tilting transitions in the optoelectronic semiconductor CsPbBr₃ over the temperature range 303-468 K. The cubic-to-tetragonal transition near 405 K is marked by pronounced elastic softening accompanied by a sharp increase in acoustic loss. High anelastic loss below this transition reveals the presence of mobile ferroelastic twin walls that become pinned by lead vacancies at a temperature interval near 380 K in the tetragonal phase. The elastic softening in the cubic phase is strongly correlated to dynamic effects such as the local polar fluctuations. This local disordered effect is further verified by the anomalously high attenuation in the orthorhombic structure, in which the ferroelastic twin walls might become mobile.