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Identification of recombination losses and charge collection efficiency in a perovskite solar cell by comparing impedance response to a drift-diffusion model

Identification of recombination losses and charge collection efficiency in a perovskite solar cell by comparing impedance response to a drift-diffusion model
Identification of recombination losses and charge collection efficiency in a perovskite solar cell by comparing impedance response to a drift-diffusion model
Interpreting the impedance response of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is significantly more challenging than for most other photovoltaics. This is for a variety of reasons, of which the most significant are the mixed ionic-electronic conduction properties of metal halide perovskites and the difficulty in fabricating stable, and reproducible, devices. Experimental studies, conducted on a variety of PSCs, produce a variety of impedance spectra shapes. However, they all possess common features, the most noteworthy of which is that they have at least two features, at high and low frequency, with different characteristic responses to temperature, illumination and electrical bias. The impedance response has commonly been analyzed in terms of sophisticated equivalent circuits that can be hard to relate to the underlying physics and which complicates the extraction of efficiency-determining parameters. In this paper we show that, by a combination of experiment and drift-diffusion (DD) modelling of the ion and charge carrier transport and recombination within the cell, the main features of common impedance spectra are well reproduced by the DD simulation. Based on this comparison, we show that the high frequency response contains all the key information relating to the steady-state performance of a PSC, i.e. it is a signature of the recombination mechanisms and provides a measure of charge collection efficiency. Moreover, steady-state performance is significantly affected by the distribution of mobile ionic charge within the perovskite layer. Comparison between the electrical properties of different devices should therefore be made using high frequency impedance measurements performed in the steady-state voltage regime in which the cell is expected to operate.
2040-3364
17385-17398
Riquelme, Antonio
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Bennett, Laurence John
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Courtier, Nicola
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Wolf, Matther
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Contreras-Bernal, Lidia
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Walker, Alison
5acb61c3-4e07-404e-b2c3-667205c9512c
Richardson, Giles
3fd8e08f-e615-42bb-a1ff-3346c5847b91
Anta, Juan
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Riquelme, Antonio
fa97839b-8680-4501-85ad-b214f8d9daa0
Bennett, Laurence John
47f7f665-ea9f-45fb-a4d6-aad39b6fbff4
Courtier, Nicola
754366ef-0f5b-4bf0-a411-edcc159cd483
Wolf, Matther
8c41cd31-1679-467e-8f86-2e2977b2fab2
Contreras-Bernal, Lidia
39b3cf6a-aacc-4e85-90dd-5cedd15a16af
Walker, Alison
5acb61c3-4e07-404e-b2c3-667205c9512c
Richardson, Giles
3fd8e08f-e615-42bb-a1ff-3346c5847b91
Anta, Juan
e7d592d1-0b61-4f28-949a-2c4ba012fe02

Riquelme, Antonio, Bennett, Laurence John, Courtier, Nicola, Wolf, Matther, Contreras-Bernal, Lidia, Walker, Alison, Richardson, Giles and Anta, Juan (2020) Identification of recombination losses and charge collection efficiency in a perovskite solar cell by comparing impedance response to a drift-diffusion model. Nanoscale, 12 (33), 17385-17398. (doi:10.1039/D0NR03058A).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Interpreting the impedance response of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is significantly more challenging than for most other photovoltaics. This is for a variety of reasons, of which the most significant are the mixed ionic-electronic conduction properties of metal halide perovskites and the difficulty in fabricating stable, and reproducible, devices. Experimental studies, conducted on a variety of PSCs, produce a variety of impedance spectra shapes. However, they all possess common features, the most noteworthy of which is that they have at least two features, at high and low frequency, with different characteristic responses to temperature, illumination and electrical bias. The impedance response has commonly been analyzed in terms of sophisticated equivalent circuits that can be hard to relate to the underlying physics and which complicates the extraction of efficiency-determining parameters. In this paper we show that, by a combination of experiment and drift-diffusion (DD) modelling of the ion and charge carrier transport and recombination within the cell, the main features of common impedance spectra are well reproduced by the DD simulation. Based on this comparison, we show that the high frequency response contains all the key information relating to the steady-state performance of a PSC, i.e. it is a signature of the recombination mechanisms and provides a measure of charge collection efficiency. Moreover, steady-state performance is significantly affected by the distribution of mobile ionic charge within the perovskite layer. Comparison between the electrical properties of different devices should therefore be made using high frequency impedance measurements performed in the steady-state voltage regime in which the cell is expected to operate.

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Accepted/In Press date: 21 July 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 13 August 2020
Published date: 7 September 2020
Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was funded by the United Kingdom’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the Centre for Doctoral Training in New and Sustainable Photovoltaics (EP/L01551X). It also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the EoCoE II project (824158). JAA, AR, LCB thank Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and EU (FEDER) under grants MAT2016-79866-R and PCI2019-111839-2 (SCALEUP) and Junta de Andalucía for support under grant SOLARFORCE (UPO-1259175). AR thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports via a PhD grant (FPU2017-03684). NEC was supported by an EPSRC doctoral prize (ref. EP/R513325/1). LJB is supported by an EPSRC funded studentship from the CDT in New and Sustainable Photovoltaics, reference EP/L01551X/1. Publisher Copyright: © The Royal Society of Chemistry.

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Local EPrints ID: 443739
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/443739
ISSN: 2040-3364
PURE UUID: 52ecadc0-ed41-4b23-817a-7174ffdd82ad
ORCID for Laurence John Bennett: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0152-1401
ORCID for Nicola Courtier: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5714-1096
ORCID for Giles Richardson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6225-8590

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Date deposited: 10 Sep 2020 16:46
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 01:47

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Contributors

Author: Antonio Riquelme
Author: Laurence John Bennett ORCID iD
Author: Nicola Courtier ORCID iD
Author: Matther Wolf
Author: Lidia Contreras-Bernal
Author: Alison Walker
Author: Juan Anta

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