Abstract
We herein perform open circuit voltage decay (OCVD) measurements on methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) perovskite solar cells to increase the understanding of the charge carrier recombination dynamics in this emerging technology. Optically pulsed OCVD measurements are conducted on CH3NH3PbI3 solar cells and compared to results from another type of thin-film photovoltaics, namely, the two reference polymer–fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cell devices based on P3HT:PC60BM and PTB7:PC70BM blends. We observe two very different time domains of the voltage transient in the perovskite solar cell with a first drop on a short time scale that is similar to the decay in the studied organic solar cells. However, 65%–70% of the maximum photovoltage persists on much longer timescales in the perovskite solar cell than in the organic devices. In addition, we find that the recombination dynamics in all time regimes are dependent on the starting illumination intensity, which is also not observed in the organic devices. We then discuss the potential origins of these unique behaviors.
Highlights
The need for affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy sources is expected to become more and more critical in the near future
In addition to organic photovoltaics, a new class of thin film devices based on methylammonium lead halide perovskites has gained a lot of attention as a promising solution to these needs
In polymer–fullerene solar cells, charge carrier transport occurs by a hopping process between localized charge states on the molecules,[10] and the recombination dynamics are often described using the Langevin model.[11]
Summary
The need for affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy sources is expected to become more and more critical in the near future. We highlight our observations of the charge carrier recombination dynamics in planar thin-film CH3NH3PbI3 solar cells (MAPbI3) at open-circuit conditions using open-circuit voltage decay (OCVD) with a time resolution up to tens of seconds. While the open circuit voltage of the two organic solar cells drops to zero well within 1 s, the MAPbI3 device was still at around 700 mV at this time and needs an additional 50 s to reach zero voltage.
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