Abstract
Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites (OIHPs) offer a promising alternative, combining strong spin-orbit coupling, high carrier mobility, and tunable optoelectronic properties. However, their potential for spintronic applications has been constrained by rapid spin relaxation, often attributed solely to the inorganic sublattice. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature spin transport in hybrid perovskites enabled by isotope engineering. Substituting hydrogen with deuterium in methylammonium lead iodide effectively suppresses hyperfine interactions (HFI), leading to a 2.6-fold increase in spin lifetime. As a result, CD₃ND₃PbI₃ exhibits a magnetocurrent (MC) ratio of 17.5% at room temperature, whereas conventional CH₃NH₃PbI₃ spin-valve devices show negligible MC response. A spin photovoltaic effect is also observed under ambient conditions, revealing a coupling between optical excitation and spin-polarized transport, and pointing toward new opportunities for light-addressable spintronic functionality. These findings not only revise the fundamental understanding of spin relaxation in hybrid materials, but also establish isotope engineering as a powerful strategy to access room-temperature spin functionality.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.
References
Fert, A. Nobel Lecture: Origin, development, and future of spintronics. Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1517–1530 (2008).
Grünberg, P. A. Nobel Lecture: From spin waves to giant magnetoresistance and beyond. Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1531–1540 (2008).
Szulczewski, G., Sanvito, S. & Coey, M. A spin of their own. Nat. Mater. 8, 693–695 (2009).
Wolf, S. A. et al. Spintronics: a spin-based electronics vision for the future. Science 294, 1488–1495 (2001).
Xiong, Z. H., Wu, D., Vardeny, Z. V. & Shi, J. Giant magnetoresistance in organic spin-valves. Nature 427, 821–824 (2004).
Nguyen, T. D., Ehrenfreund, E. & Vardeny, Z. V. Spin-polarized light-emitting diode based on an organic bipolar spin valve. Science 337, 204–209 (2012).
Raman, K. V. Interface-engineered templates for molecular spin memory devices. Nature 493, 509–513 (2013).
Ma’Mari, F. A. et al. Beating the Stoner criterion using molecular interfaces. Nature 524, 69–73 (2015).
Schott, S. et al. Polaron spin dynamics in high-mobility polymeric semiconductors. Nat. Phys. 15, 814–822 (2019).
Zhang, C. et al. Magnetic field effects in hybrid perovskite devices. Nat. Phys. 11, 427–434 (2015).
Odenthal, P. et al. Spin-polarized exciton quantum beating in hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites. Nat. Phys. 13, 894–899 (2017).
Zhai, Y. et al. Giant Rashba splitting in 2D organic-inorganic halide perovskites measured by transient spectroscopies. Sci. Adv. 3, e1700704 (2017).
Abdelwahab, I. et al. Two-dimensional chiral perovskites with large spin Hall angle and collinear spin Hall conductivity. Science 385, 311–317 (2024).
Wang, J., Pan, X., Zhang, C., Guo, H. & Vardeny, Z. V. Light-controlled spintronic device based on hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites. J. Photonics Energy 8, 1 (2018).
Wang, J. et al. Spin-optoelectronic devices based on hybrid organic-inorganic trihalide perovskites. Nat. Commun. 10, 129 (2019).
Wang, J. et al. Tunable Spin Characteristic Properties in Spin Valve Devices Based on Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Perovskites. Adv. Mater. 31, 1904059 (2019).
Lin, X., Han, Y., Zhu, J. & Wu, K. Room-temperature coherent optical manipulation of hole spins in solution-grown perovskite quantum dots. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 124–130 (2023).
Hautzinger, M. P. et al. Room-temperature spin injection across a chiral perovskite/III–V interface. Nature 631, 307–312 (2024).
Xu, J. et al. How spin relaxes and dephases in bulk halide perovskites. Nat. Commun. 15, 188 (2024).
Elliott, R. J. Theory of the effect of spin-orbit coupling on magnetic resonance in some semiconductors. Phys. Rev. 96, 266–279 (1954).
Feher, G. & Kip, A. F. Electron spin resonance absorption in metals. I. Experimental. Phys. Rev. 98, 337–348 (1955).
Dyson, F. J. Electron spin resonance absorption in metals. II. Theory of electron diffusion and the skin effect. Phys. Rev. 98, 349–359 (1955).
Yafet, Y. g Factors and spin-lattice relaxation of conduction electrons. Solid State Phys 14, 1–98 (1963).
D’yakonov, M. I. & Perel’, V. I. Optical orientation in a system of electrons and lattice nuclei in semiconductors. Theory. Sov. Phys. JETP 38, 177–183 (1974).
Dogra, R. et al. Hyperfine interaction measurements in LaCrO₃ and LaEeO₃ perovskites using perturbed angular correlation spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. B 63, 224104 (2001).
Kirstein, E. et al. Lead-Dominated Hyperfine Interaction Impacting the Carrier Spin Dynamics in Halide Perovskites. Adv. Mater. 34, 2105263 (2022).
Meliakov, S. R. et al. Hole spin precession and dephasing induced by nuclear hyperfine fields in CsPbBr₃ and CsPb(Cl,Br)₃ nanocrystals in a glass matrix. Phys. Rev. B 110, 235301 (2024).
Yu, Z. G., Ding, F. & Wang, H. Hyperfine interaction and its effects on spin dynamics in organic solids. Phys. Rev. B 87, 205446 (2013).
Yang, X. et al. Halogenated-edge polymeric semiconductor for efficient spin transport. Nat. Commun. 15, 8368 (2024).
Nguyen, T. D. et al. Isotope effect in spin response of π-conjugated polymer films and devices. Nat. Mater. 9, 345–352 (2010).
Nguyen, T. D. et al. The hyperfine interaction role in the spin response of π-conjugated polymer films and spin valve devices. Synth. Met. 161, 598–603 (2011).
Carrington, A. & McLachlan, A. D. Introduction to magnetic resonance with applications to chemistry and chemical physics. Harper & Row 1, 1–266 (1967).
Schweiger, A. & Jeschke, G. Principles of pulse electron paramagnetic resonance. Oxford University Press 1, 1–578 (2001).
Goldfarb, D. & Stoll, S. EPR spectroscopy: fundamentals and methods. John Wiley Sons Ltd 1, 1–512 (2018).
Brenner, T. M., Egger, D. A., Kronik, L., Hodes, G. & Cahen, D. Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites: low-cost semiconductors with intriguing charge-transport properties. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 15007 (2016).
Sielaff, L., Kehl, A., Aden, A., Meyer, A. & Bennati, M. Pulsed dipolar hyperfine spectroscopy for molecular distance measurements in the angstrom to nanometer scale. Sci. Adv. 11, eady5665 (2025).
Kim, J. S. et al. Ultra-bright, efficient and stable perovskite light-emitting diodes. Nature 611, 688–694 (2022).
Wu, M. W., Jiang, J. H. & Weng, M. Q. Spin dynamics in semiconductors. Phys. Rep. 493, 61–236 (2010).
Huang, T. et al. Enhancing the efficiency and stability of blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters by perdeuteration. Nat. Photonics 18, 516–523 (2024).
Sun, X. et al. Active morphology control for concomitant long distance spin transport and photoresponse in a single organic device. Adv. Mater. 28, 2609–2615 (2016).
Sun, X. et al. Room-temperature air-stable spin transport in bathocuproine-based spin valves. Nat. Commun. 4, 2794 (2013).
Sun, D., Ehrenfreund, E. & Valy Vardeny, Z. The first decade of organic spintronics research. Chem Commun 50, 1781–1793 (2014).
Chen, X. et al. Impact of Layer Thickness on the Charge Carrier and Spin Coherence Lifetime in Two-Dimensional Layered Perovskite Single Crystals. ACS Energy Lett 3, 2273–2279 (2018).
Kim, Y.-H. et al. Chiral-induced spin selectivity enables a room-temperature spin light-emitting diode. Science 371, 1129–1133 (2021).
Chen, X. et al. Tuning spin-polarized lifetime in two-dimensional metal–Halide perovskite through exciton binding energy. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 19438–19445 (2021).
Tao, W., Zhou, Q. & Zhu, H. Dynamic polaronic screening for anomalous exciton spin relaxation in two-dimensional lead halide perovskites. Sci. Adv. 6, eabb7132 (2020).
Giovanni, D. et al. Highly spin-polarized carrier dynamics and ultralarge photoinduced magnetization in CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite thin films. Nano Lett 15, 1553–1558 (2015).
Li, P. et al. Spin-polarized lasing in manganese doped perovskite microcrystals. Nat. Commun. 15, 10880 (2024).
Yue, S. et al. High ambipolar mobility in cubic boron arsenide revealed by transient reflectivity microscopy. Science 377, 433–436 (2022).
Sung, J. et al. Long-range ballistic propagation of carriers in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite thin films. Nat. Phys. 16, 171–176 (2020).
Ginsberg, N. S. & Tisdale, W. A. Spatially resolved photogenerated exciton and charge transport in emerging semiconductors. Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 71, 1–30 (2020).
Hu, S. et al. Steering perovskite precursor solutions for multijunction photovoltaics. Nature 639, 93–101 (2025).
Xiao, X. et al. Aqueous-based recycling of perovskite photovoltaics. Nature 638, 670–675 (2025).
Shi, D. et al. Low trap-state density and long carrier diffusion in organolead trihalide perovskite single crystals. Science 347, 519–522 (2015).
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22525506, U22A6002 and T2441002), the CAS Project for Young Scientists in Basic Research (YSBR-053), the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS (XDB0520101), the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFB3603804, 2021YFB3200701 and 2023YFA1507002), National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (No. 22325301). We gratefully acknowledge Y. Zhai and W. Huang (Hunan Normal University) for their support of the experiments and insightful discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
X.Y. participated in the entire experimental work and writing of the manuscript. H.L. and Y. Z. assisted with spin lifetime measurements. Y.X. measured the carrier mobility. M.S. and A.G. contributed to the synthesis of deuterated materials. W.S. and H.Z. performed the XRD measurements. R.Z. and K.Z. provided high-resolution TEM data. L.G., K.M. and S.H. contributed to data analysis. X.L., Y.Y., X.S. and C.Z. assisted in the experiments. Y.L. and Y.G. designed and supervised the project. All authors contributed to the discussion of the results and the writing of the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Communications thanks Tao Xu, Sanghoon Kim and Marco Gobbi for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Source data
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, X., Liu, H., Xia, Y. et al. Deuterated perovskite for room temperature spin device. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71582-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71582-x
