Low thermal budget, photonic-cured compact TiO2 layers for high-efficiency perovskite solar cells

Abstract

Rapid advances in organometallic trihalide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have positioned them to be one of the leading next generation photovoltaic technologies. However, most of the high-performance PSCs, particularly those using compact TiO₂ as an electron transport layer, require a high-temperature sintering step, which is not compatible with flexible polymer-based substrates. Considering the materials of interest for PSCs and corresponding device configurations, it is technologically imperative to fabricate high-efficiency cells at low thermal budget so that they can be realized on low-temperature plastic substrates. We report on a new photonic curing technique that produces crystalline anatase-phase TiO₂ films on indium tin oxide-coated glass and flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. The planar PSCs, using photonic-cured TiO₂ films, exhibit PCEs as high as 15.0% and 11.2% on glass and flexible PET substrates, respectively, comparable to the device performance of PSCs incorporating furnace annealed TiO₂ films.