Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

All-inorganic perovskites have emerged as promising photovoltaic materials due to their superior thermal stability compared to their heat-sensitive hybrid organic-inorganic counterparts. In particular, CsPbI₂ Br shows the highest potential for developing thermally-stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs) among all-inorganic compositions. However, controlling the crystallinity and morphology of all-inorganic compositions is a significant challenge. Here, a simple, thermal gradient- and antisolvent-free method is reported to control the crystallization of CsPbI₂ Br films. Optical in situ characterization is used to investigate the dynamic film formation during spin-coating and annealing to understand and optimize the evolving film properties. This leads to high-quality perovskite films with micrometer-scale grain sizes with a noteworthy performance of 17% (≈16% stabilized), fill factor (FF) of 80.5%, and open-circuit voltage (V_OC ) of 1.27 V. Moreover, excellent phase and thermal stability are demonstrated even after extreme thermal stressing at 300 °C.