Publication date: 11th March 2026
Determining charge carrier trap densities in perovskite solar cells (PSC) is challenging, with different experimental techniques often producing inconsistent results. Space-charge-limited current (SCLC) measurements on single carrier devices are a commonly used technique to estimate charged trap densities in PSCs. However, a major limitation of this method is that the measured current is frequently dominated by charges injected by the contacts rather than by charges on trap states within the perovskite layer, leading to reported trap densities on the order of 10¹⁶ cm⁻³ for 500 nm thin films. [1]
To overcome this limitation, we employ a lateral contact geometry of charge selective contacts on perovskite thin films. The trap resolution limit due to contact-induced space charge depends on the lateral contact spacing rather than on the film thickness. We further highlight that, for a given contact distance, an upper limit of the resolvable trap density is imposed by the maximum voltage of the measurement setup. A maximum applied voltage of 100 V limits the accessible trap density range to approximately two orders of magnitude above the resolution limit. By employing lateral contact spacings between 400 and 1100 µm, we expand the measurable window of charged trap densities, covering a range from 10⁹ to 10¹² cm⁻³.
Using this approach, we determined an electron trap density of approximately 5 × 10¹¹ cm⁻³ in perovskite thin films, significantly lower than previously reported values from SCLC measurements for polycrystalline thin films. Drift–diffusion simulations are used to rationalize our experimental findings and to reconcile the discrepancies between different trap characterization methods. Our results indicate that shallow traps in perovskite solar cells are not detectable by SCLC measurements and other electrical measurements in the dark, while their signatures are clearly observable in optical techniques such as transient photoluminescence.
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