Plasmonic Local Heating Induced Strain Modulation for Enhanced Efficiency and Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells

The residual strain induced during the growth of perovskite film is an intrinsic issue that significantly affects the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PVSCs). Inspired by the flipped annealing method to release strain in perovskite thin films, SiO2-coated gold nanorods (GNR@SiO2) are introduced into perovskite film and advantage of the plasmonic local heating effect is taken for in situ strain relaxation. The GNR@SiO2-incorporated inverted PVSCs exhibit a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) over 23%, which is the highest PCE in plasmonic-incorporated PVSCs. Moreover, the intrinsic stability of the resulting PVSCs is greatly improved for the nonencapsulated device and retains 84% of its initial PCE after 2800 h aging under continuous illumination at 65 +/- 5 degrees C in an N-2 glove box and nearly 90% after 1000 h repetitive 12 h light on-off cycles. This work provides an efficient yet easy-to-implement plasmonic heating strategy for simultaneously enhancing the efficiency and stability of PVSCs.