No Arabic abstract
We demonstrate four and two-terminal perovskite-perovskite tandem solar cells with ideally matched bandgaps. We develop an infrared absorbing 1.2eV bandgap perovskite, $FA_{0.75}Cs_{0.25}Sn_{0.5}Pb_{0.5}I_3$, that can deliver 14.8 % efficiency. By combining this material with a wider bandgap $FA_{0.83}Cs_{0.17}Pb(I_{0.5}Br_{0.5})_3$ material, we reach monolithic two terminal tandem efficiencies of 17.0 % with over 1.65 volts open-circuit voltage. We also make mechanically stacked four terminal tandem cells and obtain 20.3 % efficiency. Crucially, we find that our infrared absorbing perovskite cells exhibit excellent thermal and atmospheric stability, unprecedented for Sn based perovskites. This device architecture and materials set will enable all perovskite thin film solar cells to reach the highest efficiencies in the long term at the lowest costs.
BaZrS3, a prototypical chalcogenide perovskite, has been shown to possess a direct band gap, an exceptionally strong near band edge light absorption, and good carrier transport. Coupled with its great stability, non-toxicity with earth abundant elements, it is thus a promising candidate for thin film solar cells. However, its reported band gap in the range of 1.7-1.8 eV is larger than the optimal value required to reach the Shockley-Queisser limit of a single junction solar cell. Here we report the synthesis of Ba(Zr1-xTix)S3 perovskite compounds with a reduced band gap. It is found that Ti alloying is extremely effective in band gap reduction of BaZrS3: a mere 4 at% alloying decreases the band gap from 1.78 to 1.51 eV, resulting in a theoretical maximum power conversion efficiency of 32%. Higher Ti-alloying concentration is found to destabilize the distorted chalcogenide perovskite phase.
In this study, the optoelectronic properties of a monolithically integrated series-connected tandem solar cell are simulated. Following the large success of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites, which have recently demonstrated large efficiencies with low production costs, we examine the possibility of using the same perovskites as absorbers in a tandem solar cell. The cell consists in a methylammonium mixed bromide-iodide lead perovskite, CH3NH3PbI3(1-x)Br3x (0 < x < 1), top sub-cell and a single-crystalline silicon bottom sub-cell. A Si-based tunnel junction connects the two sub-cells. Numerical simulations are based on a one-dimensional numerical drift-diffusion model. It is shown that a top cell absorbing material with 20% of bromide and a thickness in the 300-400 nm range affords current matching with the silicon bottom cell. Good interconnection between single cells is ensured by standard n and p doping of the silicon at 5.10^19cm-3 in the tunnel junction. A maximum efficiency of 27% is predicted for the tandem cell, exceeding the efficiencies of stand-alone silicon (17.3%) and perovskite cells (17.9%) taken for our simulations, and more importantly, that of the record crystalline Si cells.
Here we use time-resolved and steady-state optical spectroscopy on state-of-the-art low- and high-bandgap perovskite films for tandems to quantify intrinsic recombination rates and absorption coefficients. We apply these data to calculate the limiting efficiency of perovskite-silicon and all-perovskite two-terminal tandems employing currently available bandgap materials as 42.0 % and 40.8 % respectively. By including luminescence coupling between sub-cells, i.e. the re-emission of photons from the high-bandgap sub-cell and their absorption in the low-bandgap sub-cell, we reveal the stringent need for current matching is relaxed when the high-bandgap sub-cell is a luminescent perovskite compared to calculations that do not consider luminescence coupling. We show luminescence coupling becomes important in all-perovskite tandems when charge carrier trapping rates are < 10$^{6}$ s$^{-1}$ (corresponding to carrier lifetimes longer than 1 ${mu}$s at low excitation densities) in the high-bandgap sub-cell, which is lowered to 10$^{5}$ s$^{-1}$ in the better-bandgap-matched perovskite-silicon cells. We demonstrate luminescence coupling endows greater flexibility in both sub-cell thicknesses, increased tolerance to different spectral conditions and a reduction in the total thickness of light absorbing layers. To maximally exploit luminescence coupling we reveal a key design rule for luminescent perovskite-based tandems: the high-bandgap sub-cell should always have the higher short-circuit current. Importantly, this can be achieved by reducing the bandgap or increasing the thickness in the high-bandgap sub-cell with minimal reduction in efficiency, thus allowing for wider, unstable bandgap compositions (>1.7 eV) to be avoided. Finally, we experimentally visualise luminescence coupling in an all-perovskite tandem device stack through cross-section luminescence images.
A central characteristic of living beings is the ability to learn from and respond to their environment leading to habit formation and decision making1-3. This behavior, known as habituation, is universal among forms of life with a central nervous system, and interestingly observed even in single cellular organisms that do not possess a brain4-5. Here, we report the discovery of habituation based plasticity utilizing a perovskite quantum system by dynamical modulation of electron localization via reversible dopant incorporation. Microscopic mechanisms and pathways that enable this organismic collective charge-lattice interaction are elucidated by a combination of first-principles theory, synchrotron investigations, ab-initio dynamical simulations and in-situ environmental breathing studies. We implement a new learning algorithm inspired from the conductance relaxation behavior of perovskites that naturally incorporates habituation and demonstrate learning to forget: a key feature of animal and human brains6. Most surprisingly, our results show that incorporating this elementary skill in learning dramatically boosts the capability of artificial cognitive systems.
Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells are currently one of the most investigated concepts to overcome the theoretical limit for the power conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells. For monolithic tandem solar cells the available light must be distributed equally between the two subcells, which is known as current matching. For a planar device design, a global optimization of the layer thicknesses in the perovskite top cell allows current matching to be reached and reflective losses of the solar cell to be minimized at the same time. However, even after this optimization reflection and parasitic absorption losses occur, which add up to 7 mA/cm$^2$. In this contribution we use numerical simulations to study, how well hexagonal sinusoidal nanotextures in the perovskite top-cell can reduce the reflective losses of the combined tandem device. We investigate three configurations. The current density utilization can be increased from 91% for the optimized planar reference to 98% for the best nanotextured device (period 500 nm and peak-to-valley height 500 nm), where 100% refers to the Tiedje-Yablonovitch limit. In a first attempt to experimentally realize such nanophotonically structured perovskite solar cells for monolithic tandems, we investigate the morphology of perovskite layers, which are deposited onto sinusoidally structured substrates.