Prof Henry Snaith FRS

Abstract:

The unprecedented success of hybrid organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites in photovoltaics motivates fundamental research to unravel the underlying microscopic mechanism for photoinduced charge generation. Recent studies suggest that most photoexcitations in perovskites are free charge carriers, although the contribution of the electron-hole pairs (i.e., excitons) at room temperature has been a matter of debate. We have employed ultrafast two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectroscopy to directly probe the elementary optical excitation of CH3NH3PbI3 thin films with ∼16 fs temporal resolution. We distinctly capture the ultrafast dissociation of excitons to the charge carriers at room temperature and at 180 K. Interestingly, we also observe that the coherent oscillations of the off-diagonal signals in the 2D electronic spectra live for ∼50 fs at room temperature. The entropy-driven dissociation of excitons to charge carriers happens within the electronic dephasing time scale and is favored by the low exciton binding energy, which we determine to be ∼12 meV at room temperature. This ultrafast dissociation of excitons to charge carriers can be one of the important contributions to the high efficiency of perovskite-based photovoltaics.

Abstract:

A major bottleneck delaying the further commercialization of thin-film solar cells based on hybrid organohalide lead perovskites is interface loss in state-of-the-art devices. We present a generic interface architecture that combines solution-processed, reliable, and cost-efficient hole-transporting materials without compromising efficiency, stability, or scalability of perovskite solar cells. Tantalum-doped tungsten oxide (Ta-WO x )/conjugated polymer multilayers offer a surprisingly small interface barrier and form quasi-ohmic contacts universally with various scalable conjugated polymers. In a simple device with regular planar architecture and a self-assembled monolayer, Ta-WO x -doped interface-based perovskite solar cells achieve maximum efficiencies of 21.2% and offer more than 1000 hours of light stability. By eliminating additional ionic dopants, these findings open up the entire class of organics as scalable hole-transporting materials for perovskite solar cells.