Microstructure and Optical Properties of Perovskite Solar Materials

Traditional silicon solar cells are costly and require much energy to refine the silicon. A developing alternative technology which shows great promise are perovskite solar cells; the active layer being made of CH$_{3}$NH$_{3}$PbI$_{3}$. We created perovskite samples using a spin-coating technique. After the samples were created, they were examined under an SEM to verify that they had a homogeneous amorphous structure. The sample thickness was determined using an AFM and an ellipsometer. A UV-Vis setup was also built using a monochromator, a series of lenses, and a detector in order to test the bandgap of the samples. By varying our material deposition techniques, we were able to create an amorphous sample with a bandgap of about 1.6 eV, which closely matches the solar spectrum. We will discuss our perovskite deposition process at WSU.