Search

Owing to the bandgap‐bowing effect, mixed lead‐tin halide perovskites provide ideal bandgaps for the bottom subcell of all‐perovskite tandem photovoltaic devices that offer fundamentally elevated power‐conversion efficiencies. However, these materials suffer from degradation in ambient air, which worsens their optoelectronic properties and hinders their usability for photovoltaic applications. Such degradation pathways are not yet fully understood, especially for the perovskites in the middle of the APbxSn1‐xI3 solid solution line, which offer the narrowest bandgaps across the range. This study unravels the degradation mechanisms of APbxSn1‐xI3 perovskites, reporting clear differences between mixed lead‐tin (x = 0.5) and tin‐only (x = 0) perovskites. The dynamic optoelectronic properties, electronic structure, crystal structure, and decomposition products of the perovskite thin films are examined in situ during air exposure. Both perovskite compositions suffer from the formation of defects over the timescale of hours, as indicated by a significant reduction in their charge‐carrier diffusion lengths. For tin‐only perovskite, degradation predominantly causes the formation of energetically shallow tin vacancies and hole doping. However, for mixed lead‐tin perovskite, deep trap states are formed that significantly accelerate charge‐carrier recombination, yet leave mobilities relatively unaffected. These findings highlight the need for passivation strategies tailored specifically to mixed lead‐tin iodide perovskites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed‐halide perovskites offer ideal bandgaps for tandem solar cells, but photoinduced halide segregation compromises photovoltaic device performance. This study explores the influence of a hole‐transport layer, necessary for a full device, by monitoring halide segregation through in situ, concurrent X‐ray diffraction and photoluminescence measurements to disentangle compositional and optoelectronic changes. This work demonstrates that top coating FA0.83Cs0.17Pb(Br0.4I0.6)3 perovskite films with a poly(triaryl)amine (PTAA) hole‐extraction layer surprisingly leads to suppression of halide segregation because photogenerated charge carriers are rapidly trapped at interfacial defects that do not drive halide segregation. However, the generation of iodide‐enriched regions near the perovskite/PTAA interface enhances hole back‐transfer from the PTAA layer through improved energy level offsets, increasing radiative recombination losses. It is further found that while passivation with a piperidinium salt slows halide segregation in perovskite films, the addition of a PTAA top‐coating accelerates such effects, elucidating the specific nature of trap types that are able to drive the halide segregation process. This work highlights the importance of selective passivation techniques for achieving efficient and stable wide‐bandgap perovskite photovoltaic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trap‐related charge‐carrier recombination fundamentally limits the performance of perovskite solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. While improved fabrication and passivation techniques have reduced trap densities, the properties of trap states and their impact on the charge‐carrier dynamics in metal‐halide perovskites are still under debate. Here, a unified model is presented of the radiative and nonradiative recombination channels in a mixed formamidinium‐cesium lead iodide perovskite, including charge‐carrier trapping, de‐trapping and accumulation, as well as higher‐order recombination mechanisms. A fast initial photoluminescence (PL) decay component observed after pulsed photogeneration is demonstrated to result from rapid localization of free charge carriers in unoccupied trap states, which may be followed by de‐trapping, or nonradiative recombination with free carriers of opposite charge. Such initial decay components are shown to be highly sensitive to remnant charge carriers that accumulate in traps under pulsed‐laser excitation, with partial trap occupation masking the trap density actually present in the material. Finally, such modelling reveals a change in trap density at the phase transition, and disentangles the radiative and nonradiative charge recombination channels present in FA0.95Cs0.05PbI3, accurately predicting the experimentally recorded PL efficiencies between 50 and 295 K, and demonstrating that bimolecular recombination is a fully radiative process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed‐halide perovskites are essential for use in all‐perovskite or perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells due to their tunable bandgap. However, trap states and halide segregation currently present the two main challenges for efficient mixed‐halide perovskite technologies. Here photoluminescence techniques are used to study trap states and halide segregation in full mixed‐halide perovskite photovoltaic devices. This work identifies three distinct defect species in the perovskite material: a charged, mobile defect that traps charge‐carriers in the perovskite, a charge‐neutral defect that induces halide segregation, and a charged, mobile defect that screens the perovskite from external electric fields. These three defects are proposed to be MA+ interstitials, crystal distortions, and halide vacancies and/or interstitials, respectively. Finally, external quantum efficiency measurements show that photoexcited charge‐carriers can be extracted from the iodide‐rich low‐bandgap regions of the phase‐segregated perovskite formed under illumination, suggesting the existence of charge‐carrier percolation pathways through grain boundaries where phase‐segregation may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]