Laterally Grown Strain-Engineered Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells with 16.01% Efficiency

Hybrid organometallic halide perovskite-based semitransparent solar cell research has garnered significant attention recently due to their promising applications for smart windows, tandem devices, wearable electronics, displays, and sustainable internet-of-things. Though considerable progress has been made, stability, controlling the crystalline qualities, and growth orientation in perovskite thin films play crucial roles in improving the photovoltaic (PV) performance. Recently, strain modulation within the perovskite gathers an immense interest that is achieved by the ex situ process. However, little work is reported on in situ strain modulation, which is presented here. Apart from the challenges in the fabrication of high-efficiency perovskite solar cell (PSC) devices under ambient conditions, the stability of organic hole-transporting materials needs urgent attention. Herein, a single-step deposition of formamidiniumchloride (FACl)-mediated CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) thin films without an inert atmosphere and CuI as the inorganic hole-transporting material is demonstrated for their potential application toward semitransparent PSCs. The FACl amount in MAPbI3 (mg/mL) plays a critical role in controlling the crystallinity, growth orientations, and in situ strains, which modulate the charge carrier transport dynamics, thereby improving the efficiency of the PSC device. A photoconversion efficiency of 16.01% has been achieved from MAPbI3 with 20 mg/mL of FACl additive incorporation. The modification of the structural, electronic, and optical properties and the origin of strain in the as-synthesized MAPbI3 domains due to the addition of FACl are further validated with experimental findings in detail using density functional theory simulations.