Projects

In this work, we investigate the exciton dissociation dynamics occurring at the donor:acceptor interface in organic and hybrid blends employed in the realization of photovoltaic cells. Fundamental differences in the charge separation process are studied with the organic semiconductor polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and either [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) or titanium dioxide (TiO₂) acting as the acceptor. By using ultrafast broad-band transient absorption spectroscopy with few-fs temporal resolution, we observe that in both cases the incoherent formation of free charges dominates the charge generation process. From the optical response of the polymer and by tracking the excited-state absorption, we extract pivotal similarities in the incoherent energy pathways that follow the impulsive excitation. On time scales shorter than 200 fs, we observe that the two acceptors display similar dynamics in the exciton delocalization. Significant differences arise only on longer time scales with only an impact on the overall photocarrier generation efficiency.

Despite their outstanding photovoltaic performance, organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells still face severe stability issues and limitations in their device dimension. Further development of perovskite solar cells therefore requires a deeper understanding of loss mechanisms, in particular, concerning the origin and impact of trap states. Here, different surface properties of submicrometer sized CH3NH3PbI3 particles are studied as a model system by photoluminescence spectroscopy to investigate the impact of the perovskite crystal surface on photoexcited states. Comparison of single crystals with either isolating or electron-rich surface passivation indicates the presence of positively charged surface trap states that can be passivated in case of the latter. These surface trap states cause enhanced nonradiative recombination at room temperature, which is a loss mechanism for solar cell performance. In the orthorhombic phase, the origin of multiple emission peaks is identified as the recombination of free and bound excitons, whose population ratio critically depends on trap state properties. The dynamics of exciton trapping at 50 K are observed on a time-scale of tens of picoseconds by a simultaneous population decrease and increase of free and bound excitons, respectively. These results emphasize the potential of surface passivation to further improve the performance of perovskite solar cells.

Particle-based semiconductor materials are promising constituents of future technologies. They are described by unique features resulting from the combination of discrete nanoparticle characteristics and the emergence of cooperative phenomena based on long-range interaction within their superstructure. (Nano)particles of outstanding quality with regards to size and shape can be prepared via colloidal synthesis using appropriate capping agents. The classical capping agents are electrically insulating, which impedes particle-particle electronic communication. Consequently, there exists a high demand for realizing charge transport through interfaces especially for semiconductors of relevance like hybrid perovskites (HYPEs), for example, CH₃NH₃PbI₃ (MAPI) as one of the most prominent representatives. Of particular interest are crystals in the micrometer range, as they possess synergistic advantages of single crystalline bulk properties, shape control as well as the possibility of being functionalized. Here we provide a synthetic strategy toward thiophene-functionalized single crystalline MAPI microrods originating from the single source precursor CH₃NH₃PbI₃TEG₂ (TEG = triethylene glycol). In the dark, the microrods show enhanced charge transport characteristics of holes over 2 orders of magnitude compared to microscale cuboids with insulating alkyl surface modifiers and nonfunctionalized random sized particles. In large-area prototype photodetector devices (2.21 cm²), the thiophene functionalization improves the response times because of the interparticle charge transport (t_ON = 190 ms, t_OFF = 430 ms) compared to alkyl-functionalized particles (t_ON = 1055 ms, t_OFF = 60 ms), at similar responsivities of 0.65 and 0.71 mA W^-1, respectively. Further, the surface functionalization and crystal grains on the micrometer scale improve the device stability. Therefore, this study provides clear evidence for the interplay and importance of crystal size, shape and surface modification of MAPI crystals, which is of major importance in every optoelectronic device.

Lead halide perovskite solar cells have shown a tremendous rise in power conversion efficiency with reported record efficiencies of over 20% making this material very promising as a low cost alternative to conventional inorganic solar cells. However, due to a differently severe “hysteretic” behaviour during current density-voltage measurements, which strongly depends on scan rate, device and measurement history, preparation method, device architecture, etc., commonly used solar cell measurements do not give reliable or even reproducible results. For the aspect of commercialization and the possibility to compare results of different devices among different laboratories, it is necessary to establish a measurement protocol which gives reproducible results. Therefore, we compare device characteristics derived from standard current density-voltage measurements with stabilized values obtained from an adaptive tracking of the maximum power point and the open circuit voltage as well as characteristics extracted from time resolved current density-voltage measurements. Our results provide insight into the challenges of a correct determination of device performance and propose a measurement protocol for a reliable characterisation which is easy to implement and has been tested on varying perovskite solar cells fabricated in different laboratories.