Broadband plasmonic absorption enhancement of perovskite solar cells with embedded Au@SiO2@graphene core–shell nanoparticles

Abstract

Although perovskite solar cells have shown outstanding photovoltaic performance, there are still various obstacles that limit their performance and that remain as significant challenges. Weak optical absorption rate in the infrared region is a significant drawback for this kind of solar cell. In this paper, Au@SiO2@Graphene nanoparticles (NPs) as nano-photonic inclusions in the perovskite layer are proposed and investigated theoretically. Unlike conventional nanoparticles, these NPs exhibit strong, multiple plasmon resonances at low energies. The effect of geometrical parameters, periodicity, and the location of the Au@SiO2@Graphene NPs in the perovskite layer upon the performance of the PSCs are investigated. Under improved conditions, an absorption enhancement of 32% is obtained compared to pristine devices. Also, the result attained from coupled optical-electrical simulation of the improved device demonstrated 20.05% power conversion efficiency. These improvements have been achieved due to the plasmonic near-field enhancement effects of Au@SiO2@Graphene nanoparticles along with increased light-scattering from these NPs.