Electron Spin Resonance Investigations on Perovskite Solar Cell Materials Deposited on Glass Substrate

Abstract

ABSRTACTIn this article, we report low-temperature electron spin resonance (ESR) investigations carried out on solution processed three-layer inverted solar cell structures: PC61BM/CH3NH3PbI3/PEDOT:PSS/Glass, where PC61BM and PEDOT:PSS act as electron and hole transport layers, respectively. ESR measurements were conducted on ex-situ light (1 Sun) illuminated samples. We find two distinct ESR spectra. First ESR spectra resembles a typical powder pattern, associated with gx = gy = 4.2; gz = 9.2, found to be originated from Fe3+ extrinsic impurity located in the glass substrate. Second ESR spectra contains a broad (peak-to-peak line width ∼ 10 G) and intense ESR signal appearing at g = 2.008; and a weak, partly overlapped, but much narrower (peak-to-peak line width ∼ 4 G) ESR signal at g = 2.0022. Both sets of ESR spectra degrade in intensity upon light illumination. The latter two signals were found to stem from light-induced silicon dangling bonds and oxygen vacancies, respectively. Our controlled measurements confirm that these centers were generated during UV-ozone treatment of the glass substrate –a necessary step to be performed before PEDOT:PSS is spin coated. This work forms a significant step in understanding the light-induced- as well as extrinsic defects in perovskite solar cell materials.