Open-Circuit-Voltage Improvement Mechanism of Perovskite Solar Cells Revealed by Operando Spin Observation

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention as important next-generation solar cells. Their solar cell performance is known to change during operation, but the root cause of the instability remains unclear. This report describes an investigation using electron spin resonance (ESR) to evaluate an improvement mechanism for the open-circuit voltage, V_OC, of inverted perovskite solar cells at the initial stage of device operation. The ESR study revealed electron transfer at the interface from the perovskite layer to the hole-transport layer not only under dark conditions but also under light irradiation, where electrons are subsequently trapped in the hole-transport layer. An electron barrier is enhanced at the perovskite/hole-transport-layer interface, improving field-effect passivation at the interface. Thereby, the interface recombination velocity is reduced, and thus the V_OC improves. These findings are crucially important for elucidating the mechanisms of device performance changes under operation. They reveal a relation between charge transfer and performance improvement, which is valuable for the further development of efficient perovskite solar cells.