Numerical Simulation of High-Performance CsPbI3/FAPbI3 Heterojunction Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

To broaden the absorption spectrum of cells, enhance the cell stability, and avoid high costs, a novel perovskite solar cell (PSC) with the structure of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/ZnO/CsPbI3/FAPbI3/CuSCN/Au is designed using the solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS) software. The simulation results indicate that the CsPbI3/FAPbI3 heterojunction PSC has higher quantum efficiency (QE) characteristics than the single-junction CsPbI3-based PSC, and it outputs a higher short-circuit current density (Jsc) and power conversion efficiency (PCE). In order to optimize the device performance, several critical device parameters, including the thickness and defect density of both the CsPbI3 and FAPbI3 layers, the work function of the contact electrodes, and the operating temperature are systematically investigated. Through the optimum analysis, the thicknesses of CsPbI3 and FAPbI3 are optimized to be 100 and 700 nm, respectively, so that the cell could absorb photons more sufficiently without an excessively high recombination rate, and the cell achieved the highest PCE. The defect densities of CsPbI3 and FAPbI3 are set to 1012 cm−3 to effectively avoid the excessive carrier recombination centering on the cell to increase the carrier lifetime. Additionally, we found that when the work function of the metal back electrode is greater than 4.8 eV and FTO with a work function of 4.4 eV is selected as the front electrode, the excessively high Schottky barrier could be avoided and the collection of photogenerated carriers could be promoted. In addition, the operating temperature is proportional to the carrier recombination rate, and an excessively high temperature could inhibit Voc. After implementing the optimized parameters, the cell performance of the studied solar cell was improved. Its PCE reaches 28.75%, which is higher than most of existing solar cells. Moreover, the open circuit voltage (Voc), Jsc, and PCE are increased by 17%, 9.5%, and 25.1%, respectively. The results of this paper provide a methodology and approach for the construction of high-efficiency heterojunction PSCs.