Irreversible light-soaking effect of perovskite solar cells caused by light-induced oxygen vacancies in titanium oxide

An irreversible light-soaking effect was disclosed in perovskite solar cells using TiO₂ as an electron transporting layer. The power conversion efficiency of a fresh device was improved more by twice after light soaking for 15 min and then remained 70% even though the device was recovered in the dark for 4 days. The buried mechanism was explored by shedding light on the interaction between light and titanium dioxide. Oxygen vacancies in TiO₂ were found to be increased by light-soaking, especially for wavelengths shorter than 400 nm. Such vacancies enhanced the N-type doping in the semiconductor, which not only increased the conductivity of the titania film but also accelerated the charge extraction rate between perovskite crystallites and titania, and finally contributed to upgraded power conversion efficiency.