Hybrid perovskite solar cells (PVSCs) have attracted extensive attention due to rapid progress in power-conversion efficiency (champion efficiency ~25.5%) and device fabrication from solution processes, which is fully compatible with low-cost roll-to-roll (R2R) printing. However, large-scale R2R manufacturing is currently limited by their lengthy annealing times from traditional hotplate heating. Thus, developing an alternative annealing technique is essential to realize mass-production of high-performance PVSCs through high-speed printing. In this seminar presentation, I will talk about rapid photonic annealing to make high-performance perovskite solar cells. We demonstrated that infrared lamp, rapid thermal processing (RTP), UV-LEDs can be employed to anneal perovskite active layer and achieve high-performance solar cells in a much short time (tens of seconds) as compared to hotplate annealing with comparable or better performance. These novel technology developments, particularly layer-specific UV-LED annealing, will pave the way to realize large-scale manufacturing of high-performance fully flexible perovskite solar panels through cost-effective R2R printing.

Dr. Dawen Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama. Dr. Li received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2006. During his Ph.D. study, Dr. Li had intern experience at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies in 2004. From 2006 to 2008 he was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Li joined the University of Alabama in 2008. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award. Dr. Li’s current research focuses on organic electronics and perovskite-based photovoltaics.