High-performance cadmium sulphide-based planar perovskite solar cell and the cadmium sulphide/perovskite interfaces

Planar heterojunction perovskite solar cell is one of the most competitive photovoltaic technologies, while charge transport materials play a crucial role. We successfully demonstrated an effective electron transport material, namely chemical bath deposited cadmium sulphide (CdS) film under low temperature, in perovskite-based solar cells. Power conversion efficiency of 16.1% has been achieved, which is comparable to that of devices based on TiO2 film prepared via low-temperature processes. Electronic impedance spectra reveal that the CdS-based device presents a higher recombination resistance than TiO2-based devices, which reduces carrier recombination and increases the open circuit voltage. The interface between CdS and perovskite was characterized with improved characteristics when compared to TiO2, e.g., efficient carrier extraction and reduced surface defect-associated degradation in the devices, which help to alleviate anomalous hysteresis and long-term instability. Furthermore, the entire device was fabricated via solution process with a processing temperature below 100 degrees C, suggesting a promising method of further development of perovskite solar cells and commercial manufacturing. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)