The impact of Kelvin probe force microscopy operation modes and environment on grain boundary band bending in perovskite and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells

Abstract

An in-depth understanding of the electronic properties of grain boundaries (GB) in polycrystalline semiconductor absorbers is of high importance since their charge carrier recombination rates may be very high and hence limit the solar cell device performance. Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) is the method of choice to investigate GB band bending on the nanometer scale and thereby helps to develop passivation strategies. Here, it is shown that amplitude modulation AM-KPFM, which is by far the most common KPFM measurement mode, is not suitable to measure workfunction variations at GBs on rough samples, such as Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 and CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 . This is a direct consequence of a change in the cantilever-sample distance that varies on rough samples. Furthermore, we critically discuss the impact of different environments (air versus vacuum) and show that air exposure alters the GB and facet contrast, which leads to erroneous interpretations of the GB physics.