Determination of the nonradiative conversion efficiency of lead mixed-halide perovskites using optical and photothermal spectroscopy

Mixed-halide organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites are considered promising light-absorbing materials in the development of solar cells related to the obtained high-power conversion efficiency. C urrent e fforts a re focused on the study of the energy-conversion mechanisms, where the nonradiative recombination pathway is the least explored. In this work, a combination of optical and photoacoustic spectroscopies is used to determine the visible spectral light-into-heat conversion efficiency o f l ead-based m ixed-halide o rganic–inorganic h ybrid perovskites in a semicomplete n-i-p mesoscopic perovskite solar cell (PSC). A remarkable average conversion efficiency of about 87% has been found for the nonradiative combination in the perovskite, with the estimated composition FA_0.71MA_0.29PbI_2.9Br_0.1 in the wavelength range of 400 to 800 nm. As a result, 13% of the incident light is transformed in radiative recombination processes and/or photodegradation of the material. Furthermore, the extinction coefficient and refractive index of the material are reported, and it was found that the optical constants and the optical absorption in the short-wavelength range are significantly smaller than previously reported for MAPbI₃.