Proceedings of Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics (ABXPV)
Publication date: 14th December 2015
We examined surface potential and carrier transport behaviors in grain boundaries (GBs) of the active layers of CH3NH3Pb(I1-xBrx)3 (x=0.13) perovskite materials. The work function and the local current were measured by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and conductive atomic force microscopy. The electrical grain boundary properties are similar to those of polycrystalline CIGS and CZTSSe thin-film solar cells. In particular, high potential charged GBs were obtained, which could play beneficial roles for electron-hole separation and for suppressing recombination near the GBs to achieve a high efficiency in the perovskite solar cells [1]. Moreover, we characterized the changes in the electrical properties of the perovskite layers with a time dependences. The analysis allowed us to quantify the extent of the decomposition mechanism. For the thickest perovskite layer was stored for 96 h, the contact potential exhibited little variation, and a gradual increase in the local current was also confirmed in the scanned current map. We found perovskite thin films began to decompose after 310 h, displaying a color change. The changes in the surface potential and current were recorded. Annealing conditions of perovskite layers are found to be important to control grain size and crystallinity, which determines the cell performance. After deposition of the perovskite layers, the samples were annealed under 100°C for 10 minutes and 5 hours. In order to obtain the physical properties of perovskite layer as function of annealing time, we examined the surface potential variation and local current of GBs and intra grains (IGs) in the active layers of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite materials. It is found that annealing 5 hours of active layer in air leads to increase of large potential variations at GBs and IGs. Furthermore, strong dependence on the annealing time for the conversion efficiency of the solar cells explains that a potential difference near GBs would help carrier separation. Based on the understanding of the structural and electrical properties, annealing process can result in passivation at the GBs and enhancement of device performance.