Steady state performance, photo-induced performance degradation and their relation to transient hysteresis in perovskite solar cells

Hysteresis in current-voltage curves of perovskite solar cells is a serious concern as it creates confusions about actual cell performance and raises questions on its reliability. Although a lot of effort has been made to understand the origin of hysteresis, knowing whether hysteresis affects the cell performance while they are in practical use (operated constantly at maximum power point) is not yet examined. In the present study, we investigate steady state performance and performance stability of perovskite solar cells (planar architecture with varying perovskite film thickness and TiO2 mesoscopic structure with different TiO2 compact layer thickness exhibiting hysteresis of different magnitudes) operating across an external load in relation to hysteresis. The planar cells with larger hysteresis exhibit a steady state current that closely matches the value determined on forward voltage scan. Cyclic photocurrent dark current measurements on cells with hysteresis of different magnitudes reveal that photo-induced electrical instability (not material degradation), which might be originated from ion migration or photo-induced traps formation, is not related to hysteresis. Performance of the cells is recovered partially or fully, depending on the device structure, on storage in dark. TiO2 meso-structure cells tend to show complete recovery while the planar cells recover partially. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.