TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kurpiers, Jona
A1  - Ferron, Thomas
A1  - Roland, Steffen
A1  - Jakoby, Marius
A1  - Thiede, Tobias
A1  - Jaiser, Frank
A1  - Albrecht, Steve
A1  - Janietz, Silvia
A1  - Collins, Brian A.
A1  - Howard, Ian A.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Probing the pathways of free charge generation in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - The fact that organic solar cells perform efficiently despite the low dielectric constant of most photoactive blends initiated a long-standing debate regarding the dominant pathways of free charge formation. Here, we address this issue through the accurate measurement of the activation energy for free charge photogeneration over a wide range of photon energy, using the method of time-delayed collection field. For our prototypical low bandgap polymer:fullerene blends, we find that neither the temperature nor the field dependence of free charge generation depend on the excitation energy, ruling out an appreciable contribution to free charge generation though hot carrier pathways. On the other hand, activation energies are on the order of the room temperature thermal energy for all studied blends. We conclude that charge generation in such devices proceeds through thermalized charge transfer states, and that thermal energy is sufficient to separate most of these states into free charges.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04386-3
SN  - 2041-1723
VL  - 9
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Braunger, Steffen
A1  - Mundt, Laura E.
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Mews, Mathias
A1  - Rehermann, Carolin
A1  - Jost, Marko
A1  - Tejada, Alvaro
A1  - Eisenhauer, David
A1  - Becker, Christiane
A1  - Andres Guerra, Jorge
A1  - Unger, Eva
A1  - Korte, Lars
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Schubert, Martin C.
A1  - Rech, Bernd
A1  - Albrecht, Steve
T1  - Cs(x)FA(1-x)Pb(l(1-y)Br(y))(3) Perovskite Compositions
BT  - the Appearance of Wrinkled Morphology and its Impact on Solar Cell Performance
JF  - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces
N2  - We report on the formation of wrinkle-patterned surface morphologies in cesium formamidinium-based Cs(x)FA(1-y)Pb(I1-yBry)(3) perovskite compositions with x = 0-0.3 and y = 0-0.3 under various spin-coating conditions. By varying the Cs and Br contents, the perovskite precursor solution concentration and the spin-coating procedure, the occurrence and characteristics of the wrinkle-shaped morphology can be tailored systematically. Cs(0.17)FA(0.83)Pb(I0.83Br0.17)(3) perovskite layers were analyzed regarding their surface roughness, microscopic structure, local and overall composition, and optoelectronic properties. Application of these films in p-i-n perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with indium-doped tin oxide/NiOx/perovskite/C-60/bathocuproine/Cu architecture resulted in up to 15.3 and 17.0% power conversion efficiency for the flat and wrinkled morphology, respectively. Interestingly, we find slightly red-shifted photoluminescence (PL) peaks for wrinkled areas and we are able to directly correlate surface topography with PL peak mapping. This is attributed to differences in the local grain size, whereas there is no indication for compositional demixing in the films. We show that the perovskite composition, crystallization kinetics, and layer thickness strongly influence the formation of wrinkles which is proposed to be related to the release of compressive strain during perovskite crystallization. Our work helps us to better understand film formation and to further improve the efficiency of PSCs with widely used mixed-perovskite compositions.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b06459
SN  - 1932-7447
SN  - 1932-7455
VL  - 122
IS  - 30
SP  - 17123
EP  - 17135
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stolterfoht, Martin
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Marquez, Jose A.
A1  - Zhang, Shanshan
A1  - Hages, Charles J.
A1  - Rothhardt, Daniel
A1  - Albrecht, Steve
A1  - Burn, Paul L.
A1  - Meredith, Paul
A1  - Unold, Thomas
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Visualization and suppression of interfacial recombination for high-efficiency large-area pin perovskite solar cells
JF  - Nature Energy
N2  - The performance of perovskite solar cells is predominantly limited by non-radiative recombination, either through trap-assisted recombination in the absorber layer or via minority carrier recombination at the perovskite/transport layer interfaces. Here, we use transient and absolute photoluminescence imaging to visualize all non-radiative recombination pathways in planar pintype perovskite solar cells with undoped organic charge transport layers. We find significant quasi-Fermi-level splitting losses (135 meV) in the perovskite bulk, whereas interfacial recombination results in an additional free energy loss of 80 meV at each individual interface, which limits the open-circuit voltage (V-oc) of the complete cell to similar to 1.12 V. Inserting ultrathin interlayers between the perovskite and transport layers leads to a substantial reduction of these interfacial losses at both the p and n contacts. Using this knowledge and approach, we demonstrate reproducible dopant-free 1 cm(2) perovskite solar cells surpassing 20% efficiency (19.83% certified) with stabilized power output, a high V-oc (1.17 V) and record fill factor (>81%).
KW  - Energy science and technology
KW  - Solar cells
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0219-8
SN  - 2058-7546
VL  - 3
IS  - 10
SP  - 847
EP  - 854
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -