Thin-film semiconductor perspective of organometal trihalide perovskite materials for high-efficiency solar cells
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Organometal trihalide perovskites (OTPs) are arising as a new generation of low-cost active
materials for solar cells with efficiency rocketing from 3.5% to over 20% within only five years.
From “dye” in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) to “hole conductors” and “electron conductors”
in mesoscopic heterojunction solar cells, there has been a dramatic conceptual evolution on the
function of OTPs in photovoltaic devices. OTPs were originally used as dyes in Grätzel cells,
achieving a high efficiency above 15% which, however, did not manifest the excellent charge
transport properties of OTPs. An analogy of OTPs to traditional semiconductors was drawn after
the demonstration of highly efficient planar heterojunction structure OTP devices and the
observation of their excellent bipolar transport properties with a large diffusion length
exceeding 100 nm in CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) polycrystalline thin films. This review aims to
provide the most recent advances in the understanding of the origin of the high OTP device
efficiency. Specifically, we will focus on reviewing the progress in understanding
(1) the characterization of fantastic optoelectronic property of OTPs,
(2) the unusual defect physics that originate the optoelectronic property,
(3) morphology control of the perovskite film from fabrication process and film post-treatment,
(4) device interface and charge transport layers that dramatically impact device efficiency in the
OTP thin-film devices,
(5) photocurrent hysteresis,
(6) tandem solar cells and
(7) stability of the perovskite materials and solar cell devices.