Effect of sub-bandgap defects on radiative and non-radiative open-circuit voltage losses in perovskite solar cells

Abstract The efficiency of perovskite solar cells is affected by open-circuit voltage losses due to radiative and non-radiative charge recombination. When estimated using sensitive photocurrent measurements that cover the above- and sub-bandgap regions, the radiative open-circuit voltage is often un...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guus J. W. Aalbers, Tom P. A. van der Pol, Kunal Datta, Willemijn H. M. Remmerswaal, Martijn M. Wienk, René A. J. Janssen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2024-02-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45512-8
Description
Summary:Abstract The efficiency of perovskite solar cells is affected by open-circuit voltage losses due to radiative and non-radiative charge recombination. When estimated using sensitive photocurrent measurements that cover the above- and sub-bandgap regions, the radiative open-circuit voltage is often unphysically low. Here we report sensitive photocurrent and electroluminescence spectroscopy to probe radiative recombination at sub-bandgap defects in wide-bandgap mixed-halide lead perovskite solar cells. The radiative ideality factor associated with the optical transitions increases from 1, above and near the bandgap edge, to ~2 at mid-bandgap. Such photon energy-dependent ideality factor corresponds to a many-diode model. The radiative open-circuit voltage limit derived from this many-diode model enables differentiating between radiative and non-radiative voltage losses. The latter are deconvoluted into contributions from the bulk and interfaces via determining the quasi-Fermi level splitting. The experiments show that while sub-bandgap defects do not contribute to radiative voltage loss, they do affect non-radiative voltage losses.
ISSN:2041-1723