Prof Henry Snaith FRS

Abstract:

Dye-sensitized TiO2 can be used as the active layer of solar-cell devices without an additional hole-transporting material. In this architecture, holes are transported through the dye monolayer.

Abstract:

The photoluminescence, transmittance, charge-carrier recombination dynamics, mobility, and diffusion length of CH3NH3PbI3 are investigated in the temperature range from 8 to 370 K. Profound changes in the optoelectronic properties of this prototypical photovoltaic material are observed across the two structural phase transitions occurring at 160 and 310 K. Drude-like terahertz photoconductivity spectra at all temperatures above 80 K suggest that charge localization effects are absent in this range. The monomolecular charge-carrier recombination rate generally increases with rising temperature, indicating a mechanism dominated by ionized impurity mediated recombination. Deduced activation energies Ea associated with ionization are found to increase markedly from the room-temperature tetragonal (Ea ≈ 20 meV) to the higher-temperature cubic (Ea ≈ 200 meV) phase adopted above 310 K. Conversely, the bimolecular rate constant decreases with rising temperature as charge-carrier mobility declines, while the Auger rate constant is highly phase specific, suggesting a strong dependence on electronic band structure. The charge-carrier diffusion length gradually decreases with rising temperature from about 3 μm at -93 °C to 1.2 μm at 67 °C but remains well above the optical absorption depth in the visible spectrum. These results demonstrate that there are no fundamental obstacles to the operation of cells based on CH3NH3PbI3 under typical field conditions.

Abstract:

Dye-sensitized TiO2 can be used as the active layer of solar-cell devices without an additional hole-transporting material. In this architecture, holes are transported through the dye monolayer.

Abstract:

Organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites are distinct from most other semiconductors because they exhibit characteristics of both electronic and ionic motion. Accurate understanding of the optoelectronic impact of such properties is important to fully optimize devices and be aware of any limitations of perovskite solar cells and broader optoelectronic devices. Here we use a numerical drift-diffusion model to describe device operation of perovskite solar cells. To achieve hysteresis in the modeled current-voltage characteristics, we must include both ion migration and electronic charge traps, serving as recombination centers. Trapped electronic charges recombine with oppositely charged free electronic carriers, of which the density depends on the bias-dependent ion distribution in the perovskite. Our results therefore show that reduction of either the density of mobile ionic species or carrier trapping at the perovskite interface will remove the adverse hysteresis in perovskite solar cells. This gives a clear target for ongoing research effort and unifies previously conflicting experimental observations and theories.