Facile surface homojunction reconstruction in halide perovskite solar cells

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted great attentions due to their excellent photovoltaic performance. Further improvement of device efficiency is limited by the recombination of the charge carriers even a heterojunction-based architecture is employed. Herein, we discovered that a simple surface modification of the perovskite film by incorporating isopropyl alcohol (IPA) post-treatment could convert the top surface to be more n-type, which spontaneously formed an n/n + homojunction between the bulk (weak n type (n)) and the surface (more n-type (n + )) in a single perovskite film. A reconstruction toward a PbI 2 -rich top surface was induced by the remove of excess formamidinium iodide dissolved in a polar solvent IPA. This reconstructed n/n + homojunction lead to the enlarged built-in electric field for efficient charge separation and transport of the photogenerated carriers. The inverted PSCs with the reconstructed n/n + homojunction contribute to improve efficiency and narrow their efficiency gap with conventional n-i-p type devices. Our result suggests that the homojunction structure is an effective approach to reduce carrier recombination loss and achieve highly efficient PSCs. • A facile surface homojunction reconstruction is achieved by solvent treatment. • A PbI 2 -rich perovskite surface is induced by the remove of excess FAI. • The reconstructed n/n + homojunction brings about the enlarged built-in electric field. • The reconstructed n/n + homojunction contributes to improved photovoltaic efficiency.