Perovskite Solar Cells

Thin film solar cells based on metal halide perovskite (ABX3, A= Cs,[CH3NH3] (MA),[CH (NH2)2] (FA); B= Pb, Sn; X= Cl, Br, I) have gained vigorous attention from both academic and industry during the past few years due to the impressive light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 25.2% and potentially low-cost manufacturing. The wide bandgap with flexibility to tune over broad energy range renders perovskite solar cells ideal candidates for top cells in tandem applications with well-established narrow bandgap bottom cells, such as crystalline-Si and thin-film Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) to realize highly-efficient and cost-effective tandem devices. This approach presents a viable pathway to improving efficiency of commercial Si or CIGS beyond 30% whilst maintaining low manufacturing cost. Our research activities are focused on developing efficient and stable perovskite solar cells with high near-infrared transmittance for highly efficient perovskite-CIGS all-thin-film tandem photovoltaics.

Main research topics include:

  1. NIR-transparent perovskite solar cells using scalable vapor deposition method.
  2. Fundamental understanding of the non-radiative recombination centers in the device using a variety of advanced characterization techniques.
  3. All-thin-film perovskite/CI(G)S tandem solar cells on both rigid and flexible substrates.
  4. Long-term stability of perovskite solar cells under operational conditions.
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Selected publications:
  • Haoming Liang, Jiangang Feng, Carlos D Rodríguez-Gallegos, Maximilian Krause, Xi Wang, Ezra Alvianto, Renjun Guo, Haohui Liu, Radha Krishnan Kothandaraman, Romain Carron, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Ian Marius Peters, Fan Fu, Yi Hou. Joule 2023, 7, 2859-2872
  • Severin Siegrist, Pranjal Nandi, Radha K. Kothandaraman, Aribia Abdessalem, Ayodhya N. Tiwari, Fan Fu, Understanding Coating Thickness and Uniformity of Blade-Coated SnO2 Electron Transport Layer for Scalable Perovskite Solar Cells. Solar RRL 2023, 7, 2300273
  • Rui He, Wanhai Wang, Zongjin Yi, Felix Lang, Cong Chen, Jincheng Luo, Jingwei Zhu, Jarla Thiesbrummel, Sahil Shah, Kun Wei, Yi Luo, Changlei Wang, Huagui Lai, Hao Huang, Jie Zhou, Bingsuo Zou, Xinxing Yin, Shengqiang Ren, Xia Hao, Lili Wu, Jingquan Zhang, Jinbao Zhang, Martin Stolterfoht, Fan Fu, Weihua Tang, Dewei Zhao. Nature 2023, 618, 80-86
  • Johnpaul Kurisinkal Pious, Yannick Zwirner, Huagui Lai, Selina Olthof, Quentin Jeangros, Evgeniia Gilshtein, Radha K Kothandaraman, Kerem Artuk, Philipp Wechsler, Cong Chen, Christian M Wolff, Dewei Zhao, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Fan Fu. Revealing the Role of Tin Fluoride Additive in Narrow Bandgap Pb-Sn Perovskites for Highly Efficient Flexible All-Perovskite Tandem Cells. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023, 15, 7, 10150–10157
  • Alexander Wieczorek, Huagui Lai, Johnpaul Pious, Fan Fu, Sebastian Siol. Resolving Oxidation States and X–site Composition of Sn Perovskites through Auger Parameter Analysis in XPS. Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2023, 10, 2201828
  • Shih-Chi Yang, Tzu-Ying Lin, Mario Ochoa, Huagui Lai, Radha Kothandaraman, Fan Fu, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Romain Carron. Efficiency boost of bifacial Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin-film solar cells for flexible and tandem applications with silver-assisted low-temperature process. Nature Energy 2023, 8, 40-51
  • Huagui Lai, Jincheng Luo, Yannick Zwirner, Selina Olthof, Alexander Wieczorek, Fangyuan Ye, Quentin Jeangros, Xinxing Yin, Fatima Akhundova, Tianshu Ma, Rui He, Radha K Kothandaraman, Xinyu Chin, Evgeniia Gilshtein, André Müller, Changlei Wang, Jarla Thiesbrummel, Sebastian Siol, José Márquez Prieto, Thomas Unold, Martin Stolterfoht, Cong Chen, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Dewei Zhao, Fan Fu. High-Performance Flexible All-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells with Reduced VOC-Deficit in Wide-Bandgap Subcell. Adv. Energy Mater. 2022, 12, 2202438
  • Fan Fu, Jia Li, Terry ChienJen Yang, Haoming Liang, Antonin Faes, Quentin Jeangros, Christophe Ballif, Yi Hou. Monolithic Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: From the Lab to Fab? Adv. Mater. 2022, 34, 2106540
  • Radha K Kothandaraman, Huagui Lai, Abdessalem Aribia, Shiro Nishiwaki, Severin Siegrist, Maximilian Krause, Yannick Zwirner, Galo Torres Sevilla, Kerem Artuk, Christian M Wolff, Romain Carron, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Fan Fu. Laser Patterned Flexible 4T Perovskite-Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Tandem Mini-module with Over 18% Efficiency. Solar RRL 2022, 6, 2200392
  • T Moser, R Kothandaraman, S Yang, A Walter, S Siegrist, H Lai, E Gilshtein, AN Tiwari, F Fu. Understanding the Formation Process of Perovskite Layers Grown by Chemical Vapour Deposition. Front. Energy Res. 2022, 10, 883882
  • Changlei Wang, Yue Zhao, Tianshu Ma, Yidan An, Rui He, Jingwei Zhu, Cong Chen, Shengqiang Ren, Fan Fu, Dewei Zhao, Xiaofeng Li. A universal close-space annealing strategy towards high-quality perovskite absorbers enabling efficient all-perovskite tandem solar cells. Nature Energy 2022, 7, 744–753
  • Chunyang Zhang, Min Chen, Fan Fu, Hongwei Zhu, Thomas Feurer, Wenming Tian, Chao Zhu, Ke Zhou, Shengye Jin, Shaik Mohammed Zakeeruddin, Ayodhya Tiwari, Nitin P Padture, Michael Grätzel and Yantao Shi. CNT-based bifacial perovskite solar cells toward highly efficient 4-terminal tandem photovoltaics. Energy Environ. Sci., 2022, 15, 1536-1544.
  • Severin Siegrist, Shih-Chi Yang, Evgeniia Gilshtein, Xiaoxiao Sun, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Fan Fu. Triple-cation perovskite solar cells fabricated by a hybrid PVD/blade coating process using green solvents. J. Mater. Chem. A, 2021, 9, 26680-26687.
  • Rui He, Shengqiang Ren, Cong Chen, Zongjin Yi, Yi Luo, Huagui Lai, Wenwu Wang, Guanggen Zeng, Xia Hao, Ye Wang, Jingquan Zhang, Changlei Wang, Lili Wu, Fan Fu, Dewei Zhao. Wide-bandgap organic–inorganic hybrid and all-inorganic perovskite solar cells and their application in all-perovskite tandem solar cells. Energy Environ. Sci., 2021, 14, 5723-5759
  • Qiyu Chen, Jincheng Luo, Rui He, Huagui Lai, Shengqiang Ren, Yiting Jiang, Zhenxi Wan, Wenwu Wang, Xia Hao, Ye Wang, Jingquan Zhang, Iordania Constantinou, Changlei Wang, Lili Wu, Fan Fu, Dewei Zhao. Unveiling Roles of Tin Fluoride Additives in High-Efficiency Low-Bandgap Mixed Tin-Lead Perovskite Solar Cells. Adv. Energy Mater. 2021, 11, 2101045
  • Radha K Kothandaraman, Yan Jiang, Thomas Feurer, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Fan Fu. Near-Infrared-Transparent Perovskite Solar Cells and Perovskite-Based Tandem Photovoltaics. Small Methods 2020, 4, 2000395.
  • Yan Jiang, Thomas Feurer, Romain Carron, Galo Torres Sevilla, Thierry Moser, Stefano Pisoni, Rolf Erni, Marta D Rossell, Mario Ochoa, Ramis Hertwig, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Fan Fu. High-Mobility In2O3:H Electrodes for Four-Terminal Perovskite/CuInSe2 Tandem Solar Cells. ACS Nano 2020, 14, 6, 7502–7512
  • Thierry Moser, Kerem Artuk, Yan Jiang, Thomas Feurer, Evgeniia Gilshtein, Ayodhya N Tiwari, Fan Fu. Revealing the perovskite formation kinetics during chemical vapour deposition. J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020, 8, 21973-21982

Dr. Fan Fu

Group Leader

Phone +41 58 765 4777

fan.fu@empa.ch

 

Projects
  • Swiss National Science Foundation. PerFlex: Substrate Configuration All-Perovskite Monolithic Tandem Solar Cells on Flexible and Textured Substrates with both Extremely High Stability and Efficiency.
  • Swiss Federal Office of Energy. HIPEROS: High-speed Fabrication of NIR-transparent Wide-bandgap Perovskite Solar Modules enabled by Slot-die Coating and Photonic Curing.
  • Horizon Europe. SuPerTandem: Sustainable materials and manufacturing processes for the development of high efficiency, flexible, all-Perovskite Tandem photovoltaic modules with low CO2 footprint.
  • Horizon Europe. LUMINOSITY: Strategic Focus Area: Advanced Manufacturing (SFA-AM), ETH Domain.
  • AMYS: Advancing Manufacturability of Hybrid Organixc-inorganic Semiconductors for Large Area Optoelectronics.
  • Empa IRC project, Empa. TextTandem.