Effects of intrinsic and atmospherically induced defects in narrow bandgap (FASnI3)x(MAPbI3)1-x perovskite films and solar cells

Biwas Subedi; Chongwen Li; Maxwell M Junda; Zhaoning Song; Yanfa Yan; Nikolas J Podraza

doi:10.1063/1.5126867

Effects of intrinsic and atmospherically induced defects in narrow bandgap (FASnI₃)_x(MAPbI₃)_1-x perovskite films and solar cells

J Chem Phys. 2020 Feb 14;152(6):064705. doi: 10.1063/1.5126867.

Authors

Biwas Subedi¹, Chongwen Li¹, Maxwell M Junda¹, Zhaoning Song¹, Yanfa Yan¹, Nikolas J Podraza¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy and The Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.

PMID: 32061228
DOI: 10.1063/1.5126867

Abstract

Narrow bandgap mixed tin (Sn) + lead (Pb) perovskites are necessary for the bottom sub-cell absorber in high efficiency all-perovskite polycrystalline tandem solar cells. We report on the impact of mixed cation composition and atmospheric exposure of perovskite films on sub-gap absorption in films and performance of solar cells based on narrow bandgap mixed formamidinium (FA) + methylammonium (MA) and Sn + Pb halide perovskites, (FASnI₃)_x(MAPbI₃)_1-x. Structural and optical properties of 0.3 ≤ x ≤ 0.8 (FASnI₃)_x(MAPbI₃)_1-x perovskite thin film absorbers with bandgaps ranging from 1.25 eV (x = 0.6) to 1.34 eV (x = 0.3) are probed with and without atmospheric exposure. Urbach energy, which quantifies the amount of sub-gap absorption, is tracked for pristine perovskite films as a function of composition, with x = 0.6 and 0.3 demonstrating the lowest and highest Urbach energies of 23 meV and 36 meV, respectively. Films with x = 0.5 and 0.6 compositions show less degradation upon atmospheric exposure than higher or lower Sn-content films having greater sub-gap absorption. The corresponding solar cells based on the x = 0.6 absorber show the highest device performance. Despite having a low Urbach energy, higher Sn-content solar cells show reduced device performances as the amount of degradation via oxidation is the most substantial.