Search

Following the 2nd release of the “Emerging PV reports,” the best achievements in the performance of emerging photovoltaic devices in diverse emerging photovoltaic research subjects are summarized, as reported in peer‐reviewed articles in academic journals since August 2021. Updated graphs, tables, and analyses are provided with several performance parameters, e.g., power conversion efficiency, open‐circuit voltage, short‐circuit current density, fill factor, light utilization efficiency, and stability test energy yield. These parameters are presented as a function of the photovoltaic bandgap energy and the average visible transmittance for each technology and application, and are put into perspective using, e.g., the detailed balance efficiency limit. The 3rd installment of the “Emerging PV reports” extends the scope toward triple junction solar cells.

Methylammonium (MA)-free perovskite solar cells have the potential for better thermal stability than their MA-containing counterparts. However, the efficiency of MA-free perovskite solar cells lags behind due to inferior bulk quality. In this work, 4-methylphenethylammonium chloride (4M-PEACl) is added into a MA-free perovskite precursor, which results in greatly enhanced bulk quality. The perovskite crystal grains are significantly enlarged, and defects are suppressed by a factor of four upon the incorporation of an optimal concentration of 4M-PEACl. Quasi-2D perovskites are formed and passivate defects at the grain boundaries of the perovskite crystals. Furthermore, the perovskite surface chemistry is modified, resulting in surface energies more favorable for hole extraction. This facile approach leads to a steady state efficiency of 23.7% (24.2% in reverse scan, 23.0% in forward scan) for MA-free perovskite solar cells. The devices also show excellent light stability, retaining more than 93% of the initial efficiency after 1000 h of constant illumination in a nitrogen environment. In addition, a four-terminal mechanically stacked perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell with champion efficiency of 30.3% is obtained using this MA-free composition. The encapsulated tandem devices show excellent operational stability, retaining more than 98% of the initial performance after 42 day/night cycles in an ambient atmosphere.

We study the temperature-dependent diffusion of many types of metal and semimetal ions in soda-lime glass using thermal relaxation ion spectroscopy, a technique that provides an electrical readout of thermally activated diffusion of charge carriers driven by built-in concentration gradients and electric fields. We measure the temperature of the onset of the motion, relevant to the long term storage of radioactive elements. We demonstrate the unique behavior of silver in soda-lime glass, enabling a thermal battery with rapid discharge of stored energy above a threshold temperature. We show that the Meyer-Neldel rule applies when comparisons of temperature-dependent diffusion rates are made between related measurements on one sample or between the same measurements on related samples. The results support a thermodynamic interpretation of the Meyer-Neldel rule as an enthalpy-entropy correlation where the Meyer-Neldel temperature (T_{MN}) is the temperature that enables liquidlike, barrier-free motion of the ions, with an upper limit set by the melting point of the host medium. This interpretation explains the observed reduction in T_{MN} by built-in electric fields in depletion layers and why the upper limit for T_{MN} for all ions is set by the glass transition temperature.

Large magnetic optical rotary dispersion (Faraday rotation) has been demonstrated recently in methylammonium lead bromide. Here, we investigate the prospect of extending the active spectral range by altering the halogen. We also investigate the origins of large Faraday rotation in these diamagnetic materials using magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopy and the Kramers-Kronig relations. We find that, while MAPbCl3 (MA = methylammonium) single crystals exhibit a large Verdet constant in the blue, no appreciable Faraday rotation is observed in the red/near infra-red for MAPbI3 single crystals. However, in all film samples, we find clear evidence of large MCD resulting from the Zeeman splitting of the highly resonant 1s exciton state. Our Kramers-Kronig calculations of Faraday rotation based on MCD data matches well with the dispersion of our experimental data for MAPbCl3 and MAPbBr3 , with some deviation in magnitude-demonstrating the excitonic nature of Faraday rotation in these materials. However, our calculations predict significant Faraday rotation in MAPbI3 , contrary to our experimental results, indicating a potential discrepancy between the properties of the thin film and single crystal.

This work reports strategies for improving the power conversion efficiency (PCE) by capitalizing on temporal changes through the storage effect and immediate improvements by interface passivation. It is demonstrated that both strategies can be combined as shown by PCE improvement in passivated perovskite solar cells (PSCs) upon ambient storage because of trap density reduction. By analyzing the dominant charge recombination process, we find that lead-related traps in perovskite bulk, rather than at the surface, are the recombination centers in both as-fabricated and ambient-stored passivated PSCs. This emphasizes the necessity to reduce intrinsic defects in the perovskite bulk. Furthermore, storage causes temporal changes in band alignment even in passivated PSCs, contributing to PCE improvement. Building on these findings, composition engineering was employed to produce further immediate PCE improvements because of defect reduction in the bulk, achieving a PCE of 22.2%. These results show that understanding the dominant recombination mechanisms within a PSC is important to inform strategies for producing immediate and temporal PCE enhancements either by interface passivation, storage, composition engineering, or a combination of them all to fabricate highly efficient PSCs.

High bandgap perovskite solar cells are integral to perovskite-based multi-junction tandem solar cells with efficiency potentials over 40%. However, at present, high bandgap perovskite devices underperform compared to their mid bandgap counterparts in terms of voltage outputs and fill factors resulting in lower than ideal efficiencies. Here, the low fill factor aspect of high bandgap perovskite is addressed by developing a cation-diffusion-based double-sided interface passivation scheme that simultaneously provides bulk passivation for a 1.75 eV perovskite cell that is also compatible with a p-i-n cell architecture. The champion cell achieves a record fill factor of 86.5% and a power conversion efficiency of 20.2%. Results of ionic distribution profiling, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction crystallography reveal evidence of cation diffusion from the surface perovskite passivation layer into bulk. The diffused cations reduce Shockley–Read–Hall recombination in the perovskite bulk and at the surfaces with the latter being more dominant as confirmed by light-intensity dependent and temperature-dependent open-circuit voltage measurements as well as thermal admittance spectroscopy. This concurrent bulk and surface passivation scheme renders record fill factor and efficiency in the double-side passivated cells. This provides new insights for future passivation strategies based on ionic diffusion of functionalized materials.

Initial improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE) during ambient storage is often seen in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this work, we studied the origin of PCE enhancement by ambient sto...

Initial improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE) during ambient storage is often seen in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this work, we studied the origin of PCE enhancement by ambient storage on typical n-i-p PSCs. We found improvements in both fill factor and open-circuit voltage during the first 2 days of storage. By analyzing temperature and light intensity-dependent VOC, we found that the charge recombination mechanism changed from surface- to bulk-dominated because of defect passivation at the perovskite surface upon storage. In addition, we found that storage improves the conductivity and lowers the highest occupied molecular orbital level of the spiro-OMeTAD, improving charge extraction. These results show that there is more than one factor causing the storage-induced improvements in perovskite solar cells., ペロブスカイト太陽電池の常温熟成機構の解明. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-02-17.

Defects on perovskite surfaces acting as charge-carrier-traps are a key factor limiting the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Here we studied the defect passivation effect of three bromide-containing alkylammonium organic cations with increasing alkyl-chain-length: n-butylammonium bromide, n-octylammonium bromide and n-dodecylammonium bromide on a perovskite composition with 1.72 eV bandgap. Long-alkyl-chain organic cations were found to have a greater passivation effect compared to their shorter counterparts due to greater reduction in surface defects and substantial changes in the electronic structure of the passivated perovskite films. The efficiency of 1.72 eV PSCs was improved to 19.1% with an excellent open-circuit-voltage of over 1280 mV. The long-alkyl-chain passivation significantly improved the moisture and light stability of PSCs as the unencapsulated devices retained >90% of the initial performance after 144 h at 70–85% relative-humidity and >93% of the initial performance after operating under light for 80 h. The study has paved the way for efficient and stable wide bandgap perovskite top cells used in perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells.

Severe silicon lifetime degradation was found after its high-temperature treatment in III–V material growth chambers for the fabrication of III–V/Si multijunction solar cells. Further improvement of the cell efficiency requires insights into the root cause of such lifetime degradation and how to protect the silicon lifetime accordingly. While the exact origins of such degradation remain largely unknown, most published work concluded that extrinsic impurities that diffuse into the silicon bulk during the thermal treatment are the sole reason. In this article, we show that while not necessarily present in every float-zone silicon wafer, grown-in defects that can be thermally activated is also a key mechanism behind the observed silicon lifetime degradation during anneal in our molecular beam epitaxy chamber. As such, annealing of the silicon wafer in the furnace at 1000 °C to annihilate the grown-in defects, together with the deposition of a SiNX diffusion barrier to prevent the extrinsic impurities from diffusing into the silicon bulk, are both required to preserve the silicon lifetime throughout the III–V material growth steps.

A novel, camera-based method for direct implied open-circuit voltage (iV$_{OC}$) imaging via the use of a single bandpass filter (s-BPF) is developed for large-area photovoltaic solar cells and precursors. The photoluminescence (PL) emission is imaged using a narrow BPF with centre energy inside the high-energy tail of the PL emission, utilising the close-to-unity and nearly constant absorptivity of typical photovoltaic devices in this energy range. As a result, the exact value of the sample's absorptivity within the BPF transmission band is not required. The use of an s-BPF enables a fully contactless approach to calibrate the absolute PL photon flux for spectrally integrated detectors, including cameras. The method eliminates the need for knowledge of the imaging system spectral response. Through an appropriate choice of the BPF centre energy, a range of absorber compositions or a single absorber with different surface morphologies, such as planar and textured, can be imaged, all without the need for additional detection optics. The feasibility of this s-BPF method is first validated. The relative error in iV$_{OC}$ is determined to be ≤1.5%. The method is then demonstrated on device stacks with two different perovskite compositions commonly used in single-junction and monolithic tandem solar cells.

Here we report a monolithic perovskite−perovskite−silicon triple-junction tandem solar cell with an efficiency of over 20%, an open-circuit voltage of 2.74 V, and a fill factor of 86%, which are the highest values for double- or triple-junction perovskite-based tandems reported to date. The concept and design presented here are an important milestone toward low-cost triple-junction tandem photovoltaics.