Charge Carrier Dynamics at the Perovskite Interface with Self-Assembled Monolayers

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) deposited on the hole-collecting electrodes of p-i-n perovskite solar cells effectively replace bulky hole transporting layers. However, the mechanism by which monolayers control the electronic processes and how they depend on the properties of the monolayer molecules remain poorly understood. In this study, we developed a simplified perovskite solar cell imitator with blocked electron extraction to investigate the photocurrent dynamics between the perovskite and the hole-collecting ITO electrode. We investigated the photoluminescence and photovoltage dynamics under short laser pulse excitation and addressed the influence of bulky and monomolecular hole transport layers. Our findings reveal that the photovoltage dynamics is significantly affected by the properties of the transport and perovskite layers, which in turn depend on the methods of sample preparation and exploration. Photocurrent dynamics is determined by several processes, including charge carrier displacement in the local electric field, hole transport to ITO, trapping of holes in interface trap states, and electron-hole recombination at the interface. We propose a model that takes into account molecular dipole moments and their ionization potentials to partially explain the different influences of different monolayers on the hole extraction and interfacial recombination rates. Additionally, the photovoltage dynamics also strongly depends on the illumination of the sample and shows memory effects that persist over minutes and hours and are attributed to the redistribution of ions.