Detrimental effects of ion migration in the perovskite and hole transport layers on the efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cells

Perovskite-based solar cells (PSCs) have opened the possibility of cost-effective, high-efficiency photovoltaic conversion. However, their instabilities prevent them from commercialization. One of the instability triggers has been attributed to the mobile ions flowing into the carrier transport layer(s). To study the effect of this ionic migration, a numerical PSC model is developed, considering electronic and ionic mixed drift-diffusion transport both in the perovskite and the hole transport layer. The inverted PSC architecture, phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)/perovskite/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) with two heterojunctions, is analyzed. The effect of the ionic migration on the performance of the PSCs has been analyzed by (1) the variation of the ionic mobile concentration and (2) the modification of the local trapping density. The current–voltage (J–V) and capacitance–voltage characteristics show that the electric field in the bulk can be screened by the ionic distribution modifying the effective built-in voltage. At high ionic concentrations, the electric field at the interfaces is also affected, hindering the charge extraction. The simulations show that the short circuit current is therefore strongly modified.