Performance enhancement of perovskite solar cells with Mg-doped TiO2 compact film as the hole-blocking layer

In this letter, we report perovskite solar cells with thin dense Mg-doped TiO2 as hole-blocking layers (HBLs), which outperform cells using TiO2 HBLs in several ways: higher open-circuit voltage (Voc) (1.08 V), power conversion efficiency (12.28%), short-circuit current, and fill factor. These properties improvements are attributed to the better properties of Mg-modulated TiO2 as compared to TiO2 such as better optical transmission properties, upshifted conduction band minimum (CBM) and downshifted valence band maximum (VBM), better hole-blocking effect, and higher electron life time. The higher-lying CBM due to the modulation with wider band gap MgO and the formation of magnesium oxide and magnesium hydroxides together resulted in an increment of Voc. In addition, the Mg-modulated TiO2 with lower VBM played a better role in the hole-blocking. The HBL with modulated band position provided better electron transport and hole blocking effects within the device.