Abstract:
Since the discovery of their photovoltaic capabilities, hybrid metal organic halide perovskites have continued to set new record efficiencies. Perovskite-based solar cells promise the possibility to be fabricated in more cost-efficient and less energy-demanding processes than current state-of-the art silicon-based solar cells. The main appeal of perovskite solar cells, however, does not lie in replacing established photovoltaic materials, but in their complementation, either in joint applications such as tandem cells, or in offering new implementation opportunities. For applications of perovskite materials, a fine tuning of material properties is essential. These can be heavily influenced by small variations in material composition, morphology and microscopic structure. Therefore, structural investigation of hybrid perovskite materials is an important step in correlating structure, properties and the material fabrication. Although the final materials also contain important structural information, in-situ measurements during the crystallization and preceding processes are key to understanding the full influences of all parameters during production. X-ray diffraction experiments are a perfect tool for this purpose, since they offer non-invasive investigation, which, employing synchrotron radiation, provides a subsecond temporal resolution that is well suited for observing the time scales of (pre-)crystallization processes. This thesis summarizes various works on the investigation of hybrid metal organic halide perovskite materials using X-ray techniques. The selection of works showcases the range of applications of X-ray based techniques on relevant perovskite structures to provide an overview of the opportunities offered by the combination of synchrotron based X-ray research and perovskites, culminating in fabrication of perovskite-organic tandem solar cells with record efficiency.
