Study of Lead-Free Perovskite Photoelectric Devices with TiO2 as a Buffer Layer

In this work, a titanium oxide buffer layer was explored as a possible buffer electron transporting layer (ETL) with iodine-tin-based perovskite material for enhancement of a thin-film lead-free perovskite solar cell. The open-circuit voltage of the device was used as an indicator for the interface energy barrier’s change with the thickness of the TiO2. The buffer and photoabsorbing layers were deposited by vacuum reactive sputtering and a low-temperature ion-assisted process from a confocal sintered source, respectively, allowing precise tuning of the film properties and reproducibility of the solar cell behavior. The surface roughness of the buffer layers was investigated by atomic force microscopy and together with the measured absorbance spectra conclusions about the optical losses in the device were made. It was found that the highest voltage was generated from the structure with 75 nm-thick ETL. The electrical behavior of the cell with this buffer layer was additionally studied by impedance measurements. Small interface capacitance and contact resistance were obtained and considered suitable for photodetector fabrication. The practical applicability of the structure with a dual function of self-powered photodetection was demonstrated by the measurement of the response time.