Here, a low-cost perovskite solar cell using CuI and ZnO as the respective inorganic hole and electron transport layers is introduced. Copper foil is chosen as a cheap and low-weight conductive substrate which has a similar work function to ITO. Besides, copper foil is an interesting copper atom source for the growth of the upper cuprous iodide layer on copper foil. A spray coating of a transparent silver nanowire electrode is used as a top contact. The prepared device shows a maximum power conversion efficiency of 12.80% and long-term durability providing an environmentally and market friendly perovskite solar cell.

Inorganic hole‐transport materials are commercially desired to decrease the fabrication cost of perovskite solar cells. Here, Cu2O is introduced as a potential hole‐transport material for stable, low‐cost devices. Considering that Cu2O formation is highly sensitive to the underlying mixture of perovskite precursors and their solvents, we proposed and engineered a technique for reactive magnetron sputtering. The rotational angular deposition of Cu2O yields high surface coverage of the perovskite layer for high rate of charge extraction. Deposition of this Cu2O layer on the pinhole‐free perovskite layer produces devices with power conversion efficiency values of up to 8.93 %. The engineered Cu2O layers showed uniform, compact, and crack‐free surfaces on the perovskite layer without affecting the perovskite structure, which is desired for deposition of the top metal contact and for surface shielding against moisture and mechanical damages.

No abstract

This review presents the progress of the change of the PSK structure from 3 dimensional CH3NH3PbX3 to mixed cations or halides based PSKs and finally to Ruddlesden–Popper PSK two dimensional (2D) homologous structures regarding the lifetime improvement.

In this work we reported sputter deposited NiOx/Ni double layer as an HTM/contact couple in normal architecture of perovskite solar cell. A perovskite solar cell that is durable for more than 60 days was achieved, with increasing efficiency from 1.3% to 7.28% within 6 days. Moreover, low temperature direct deposition of NiOx layer on perovskite layer was introduced as a potential hole transport material for an efficient cost-effective solar cell applicable for various morphologies of perovskite layers, even for perovskite layers containing pinholes, which is a notable challenge in perovskite solar cells. The angular deposition of NiOx layers by dc reactive magnetron sputtering showed uniform and crack-free coverage of the perovskite layer with no negative impact on perovskite structure that is suitable for nickel back contact layer, surface shielding against moisture, and mechanical damages. Replacing the expensive complex materials in previous perovskite solar cells with low cost available materials introduces cost-effective scalable perovskite solar cells.

A simple and practical approach is introduced for the deposition of CuI as an inexpensive inorganic hole-transport material (HTM) for the fabrication of low cost perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by gas-solid phase transformation of Cu to CuI. The method provides a uniform and well-controlled CuI layer with large grains and good compactness that prevents the direct connection between the contact electrodes. Solar cells prepared with CuI as the HTM with Au electrodes displays an exceptionally high short-circuit current density of 32 mA cm(-2) , owing to an interfacial species formed between the perovskite and the Cu resulting in a long wavelength contribution to the incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE), and an overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.4 %. The growth of crystalline and uniform CuI on a low roughness perovskite layer leads to remarkably high charge extraction in the cells, which originates from the high hole mobility of CuI in addition to a large number of contact points between CuI and the perovskite layer. In addition, the solvent-free method has no damaging side effect on the perovskite layer, which makes it an appropriate method for large scale applications of CuI in perovskite solar cells.

We introduced a new approach to deposit perovskite layer with no need for dissolving perovskite precursors. Deposition of Solution-free perovskite (SFP) layer is a key method for deposition of perovskite layer on the hole or electron transport layers that are strongly sensitive to perovskite precursors. Using deposition of SFP layer in the perovskite solar cells would extend possibility of using many electron and hole transport materials in both normal and invert architectures of perovskite solar cells. In the present work, we synthesized crystalline perovskite powder followed by successful deposition on TiO2 and cuprous iodide as the non-sensitve and sensitive charge transport layers to PbI2 and CH3NH3I solution in DMF. The post compressing step enhanced the efficiency of the devices by increasing the interface area between perovskite and charge transport layers. The 9.07% and 7.71% cell efficiencies of the device prepared by SFP layer was achieved in respective normal (using TiO2 as a deposition substrate) and inverted structure (using CuI as deposition substrate) of perovskite solar cell. This method can be efficient in large-scale and low cost fabrication of new generation perovskite solar cells.

Abstract-In this paper, we present a numerical model to study counter pulse propagation in semiconductor optical amplifiers. An improved finite-difference beam propagation method for solving the modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation is applied for the first time in the counterpropagation regime. In our model, group velocity dispersion, two-photon absorption, ultrafast nonlinear refraction, and the change in the gain peak wavelength with carrier density are included, which have not been considered simultaneously in previous counterpropagation models. The model is applied to demonstrate how a subpicosecond and picosecond probe pulse shape and spectrum can be modified by a counterpropagating pump pulse. Based on the results obtained by this model, while subpicosecond probe pulses can be compressed by in this scheme, their time-bandwidth product are also improved significantly. Furthermore, the effects of several parameters are analyzed to obtain the proper probe spectral peak shift using counterpropagating probe pulses. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the new scheme are assessed through numerical examples and are shown to be superior to previously published approaches.Index Terms-Counterpropagation, pulse shaping, semiconductor optical amplifier, ultrafast nonlinear effects.