Regulating strain in perovskite thin films through charge-transport layers

Thermally-induced tensile strain that remains in perovskite films following annealing results in increased ion migration and is a known factor in the instability of these materials. Previously-reported strain regulation methods for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have utilized substrates with high thermal expansion coefficients that limits the processing temperature of perovskites and compromises power conversion efficiency. Here we compensate residual tensile strain by introducing an external compressive strain from the hole-transport layer. By using a hole-transport layer with high thermal expansion coefficient, we compensate the tensile strain in PSCs by elevating the processing temperature of hole-transport layer. We find that compressive strain increases the activation energy for ion migration, improving the stability of perovskite films. We achieve an efficiency of 16.4% for compressively-strained PSCs; and these retain 96% of their initial efficiencies after heating at 85 °C for 1000 hours—the most stable wide-bandgap perovskites (above 1.75 eV) reported so far.