Tuesday, 25 January, 2022

2D/3D Hybrid Cs2AgBiBr6 Double Perovskite Solar Cells: Improved Energy Level Alignment for Higher Contact-Selectivity and Large Open Circuit Voltage

M. T. Sirtl, R. Hooijer, M. Armer, F. G. Ebadi, M. Mohammadi, C. Maheu, A. Weis, B. T. van Gorkom, S. Haeringer, R. A. J. Janssen, T. Mayer, V. Dyakonov, W. Tress, T. Bein

10.1002/aenm.202103215

Since their introduction in 2017, the efficiency of lead-free halide perovskite solar cells based on Cs2AgBiBr6 has not exceeded 3%. The limiting bottlenecks are attributed to a low electron diffusion length, self-trapping events and poor selectivity of the contacts, leading to large non-radiative V-OC losses. Here, 2D/3D hybrid double perovskites are introduced for the first time, using phenethyl ammonium as the constituting cation. The resulting solar cells show an increased efficiency of up to 2.5% for the champion cells and 2.03% on average, marking an improvement by 10% compared to the 3D reference on mesoporous TiO2. The effect is mainly due to a V-OC improvement by up to 70 mV on average, yielding a maximum V-OC of 1.18 V using different concentrations of phenethylammonium bromide. While these are among the highest reported V-OC values for Cs2AgBiBr6 solar cells, the effect is attributed to a change in recombination behavior within the full device and a better selectivity at the interface toward the hole transporting material (HTM). This explanation is supported by voltage-dependent external quantum efficiency, as well as photoelectron spectroscopy, revealing a better energy level alignment and thus a better hole-extraction and improved electron blocking at the HTM interface.