Prof Henry Snaith FRS

Abstract:

Vacuum deposition of metal halide perovskite is a scalable and adaptable method. In this study, we adopt sequential evaporation to form the perovskite layer and reveal how the relative humidity during the annealing step, impacts its crystallinity and the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). By controlling the humidity, we achieved a significant enhancement of 50 times in PLQY from 0.12% to 6%. This improvement corresponds to an increase in implied open-circuit voltage (Voc) of over 100 meV. We investigate the origin of this enhanced PLQY by combining structural, chemical and spectroscopic methods. Our results show that annealing in a controlled humid environment improves the organic and inorganic halides' interdiffusion throughout the bulk, which in turn significantly reduces non-radiative recombination both in the bulk and at the interfaces with the charge transport layers, which enhanced both the attainable open-circuit voltage and the charge carrier diffusion length. We further demonstrate that the enhanced intermixing results in fully vacuum-deposited FA0.85Cs0.15Pb(IxCl1−x)3 p-i-n perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with a maximum power point tracked efficiency of 21.0% under simulated air mass (AM) 1.5G 100 mW cm−2 irradiance. Additionally, controlled humidity annealed PSCs exhibit superior stability when aged under full spectrum simulated solar illumination at 85 °C and in open-circuit conditions.

Abstract:

2D lead halide perovskites (2DPs) offer chemical compatibility with 3D perovskites and enhanced stability, which are attractive for applications in photovoltaic and light‐emitting devices. However, such lowered structural dimensionality causes increased excitonic effects and highly anisotropic charge‐carrier transport. Determining the diffusivity of excitations, in particular for out‐of‐plane or inter‐layer transport, is therefore crucial, yet challenging to achieve. Here, an effective method is demonstrated for monitoring inter‐layer diffusion of photoexcitations in (PEA)2PbI4 thin films by tracking time‐dependent changes in photoluminescence spectra induced by photon reabsorption effects. Selective photoexcitation from either substrate‐ or air‐side of the films reveals differences in diffusion dynamics encountered through the film profile. Time‐dependent diffusion coefficients are extracted from spectral dynamics through a 1D diffusion model coupled with an interference correction for refractive index variations arising from the strong excitonic resonance of 2DPs. Such analysis, together with structural probes, shows that minute misalignment of 2DPs planes occurs at distances far from the substrate, where efficient in‐plane transport consequently overshadows the less efficient out‐of‐plane transport in the direction perpendicular to the substrate. Through detailed analysis, a low out‐of‐plane excitation diffusion coefficient of (0.26 ± 0.03) ×10−4 cm2 s−1 is determined, consistent with a diffusion anisotropy of ≈4 orders of magnitude.

Abstract:

Doping with small densities of foreign ions is an essential strategy for tuning the optoelectronic properties of semiconductors, but the effects of doping are not well-understood in halide perovskites. We investigate the effect of Bi3+ and Sb3+ doping in lead–tin perovskites. Films doped with small amounts of BiI3 and SbI3 show greatly increased non-radiative recombination at precursor doping concentrations as low as 1 ppm for Bi3+ and 1000 ppm for Sb3+. We rationalize such behaviour by density functional theory (DFT) simulations, showing that these metal ions can be incorporated in the perovskite crystal by introducing deep trap levels in the band gap. Having found that very small amounts of Bi3+ greatly reduce the optoelectronic quality of lead–tin perovskite films, we investigate the presence of Bi impurities in perovskite precursor chemicals and find quantities approaching 1 ppm in some. In response, we introduce a facile method for removing Bi3+ impurities and demonstrate removal of 100 ppm Bi from a perovskite ink. This work demonstrates how the incorporation of small concentrations of foreign metal ions can severely affect film quality, raising the importance of precursor chemical purity.

Abstract:

Metal-halide perovskites are emerging as promising semiconductors for next-generation (opto)electronics. Due to their excellent optoelectronic and physical properties, as well as their processing capabilities, the past decades have seen significant progress and success in various device applications, such as solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting diodes, and transistors. Despite their performance now rivaling or surpassing that of silicon counterparts, halide-perovskite semiconductors still face challenges for commercialization, particularly in terms of toxicity, stability, reliability, reproducibility, and lifetime. In this Roadmap, we present comprehensive discussions and perspectives from leading experts in the perovskite research community, covering various perovskite (opto)electronics, fundamental material properties and fabrication methods, photophysical characterizations, computing science, device physics, and the current challenges in each field. We hope this article provides a valuable resource for researchers and fosters the development of halide perovskites from basic to applied science.

Abstract:

In this work we demonstrate that time-resolved photoluminescence data of metal halide perovskites can be effectively evaluated by combining Bayesian inference with a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo algorithm and a physical model. This approach enables us to infer a high number of parameters which govern the performance of metal halide perovskite-based devices, alongside the probability distributions of those parameters, as well as correlations among all parameters. Via studying a set of "half-stacks’‘, comprising electron and hole transport materials contacting perovskite thin-films, we determine surface recombination velocities at these interfaces with high precision. From the probability distributions of all inferred parameters, we can simulate intensity-dependent photoluminescence quantum efficiency and compare it to the experimental data. Finally, we estimate mobility values for the "vertical’’ charge carrier transport, that perpendicular to the plane of the substrate, for all samples using our approach. Since this mobility estimation is derived from charge carrier diffusion over the length-scale of the film thickness and in the vertical direction, it is highly relevant to transport in photovoltaic and light emitting devices. Our approach of coupling spectroscopic measurements with advanced, computational analysis will help speed up scientific research in the field of optoelectronic materials and devices and exemplifies how carefully constructed computational algorithms can derive valuable plurality of information from simple datasets. We expect that our approach will be expandable to a variety of other analysis techniques and that our method will be applicable to other semiconductors.