Impact of structural heterogeneity in solar absorber layers (Conference Presentation)

Impact of structural heterogeneity in solar absorber layers Michael F Toney SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Structural and morphological heterogeneity is common in thin film and emerging solar cell absorber layers, including organic photovoltaic bulk heterojunctions (OPV BHJs), hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites (HOIP), and Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe), and has a significant impact on the (opto)electronic heterogeneity and hence absorber properties. In this talk I will use X-ray based methods, including scattering and spectroscopies, to characterize and quantify the heterogeneity in OPV BHJs and HOIP absorber layers. The BHJ films are blends of the small molecule X2 and [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) where it has been established that there are three distinct region of the films – pure PC71BM, pure X2 and intimately mixed X2:PC71BM. This talk will show how the absolute concentration of the mixed phase can be used to explain the large PC71BM:X2 composition range where good performance is observed [1]. The talk will also show that spin cast CH3NH3PbI3 films consistent of both crystalline and amorphous regions, which can explain previous heterogeneity in the PL imaging [2]. [1] Huang et al., Adv. Energy Mater. 4, 1301886 (2014). [2] deQuilettes et al., Science 348, 683 (2015).