Effect of Grain Cluster Size on Back-Contact Perovskite Solar Cells

Xiongfeng Lin, Anthony S. R. Chesman, Sonia R. Raga, Andrew D. Scully, Liangcong Jiang, Boer Tan, Jianfeng Lu, Yi-Bing Cheng, Udo Bach

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Incorporating interdigitated back-contact electrodes into organic–inorganic halide perovskite solar cells overcomes the optical losses and low architectural defect tolerance present in conventional “sandwich” cell configurations. However, other factors limit device performance in back-contact architectures, such as the short charge-carrier diffusion length within the perovskite film relative to the electrode spacing. As charge-carrier diffusion length is crystal-size related, in order to understand the effect of perovskite morphology on the performance of back-contact perovskite solar cells (bc-PSCs), perovskite films with four different grain cluster sizes, i.e., large, medium, small, and extra small, are fabricated via a solvent annealing approach. Crystallization of the perovskite is found to be closely related to the surface chemistry and topography of the substrate. The bc-PSC photovoltaic performance correlates positively with the perovskite grain cluster size. Through a detailed analysis of transient photovoltage decay measurements, time-resolved photoluminescence, and space charge-limited current measurements, the effect of defect densities associated with grain cluster boundaries is elucidated.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1805098
Number of pages9
JournalAdvanced Functional Materials
Volume28
Issue number45
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Nov 2018

Keywords

  • grain clusters
  • interdigitated back-contact
  • perovskite solar cells
  • surface modification

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