To further understand perovskite solar cell performance, a large research efforts are focused on elucidating the various loss mechanisms in these materials. The interfaces formed at the perovskite (PVK) absorber layer are known to play a critical role in voltage losses across the device. One approach to study the PVK absorber and its adjacent transport layers (TLs) is through microwave conductivity (MC) measurements, which probe the electronic properties of PVK layered stacks. A key advantage of MC measurements is that they selectively probe charge carriers within the PVK absorber, enabling to study the effects of different TLs, interfaces, and possible passivation strategies. These measurements allow contactless probing of charge carrier dynamics within the PVK material; additionally, the use of a resonant cavity improves the sensitivity of the measurement.

In this talk, I will explore different microwave conductivity experiments and the insights they provide. Starting from the relatively simple steady-state microwave conductivity measurements (SSMC) and extending to the more involved double pulse – time-resolved microwave conductivity measurements (DPE-TRMC), where a second laser pulse is included to study trapping mechanisms for different PVK/TL configurations. Qualitative assessment of the experimental data already provides insights into the electronic processes occurring within the different single-, bi-, and tri-layer stacks. To further elucidate the different processes and their associated timescales, the drift-diffusion model SIMsalabim is implemented, providing a means to quantitatively assess the charge carrier dynamics at play.