Optical simulation and design of high-absorption thin-film perovskite halide solar cells based on embedded quadrilateral cluster nanoparticles

Abstract

Recently, thin-film organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have a high efficiency-to-cost ratio. However, due to the thickness of the absorber layer, photon management in the absorber layer is still not optimized. This research suggests an embedded side for the plasmonic perovskite solar cells. Using Maxwell equations solver (finite-difference time-domain method), numerical optimization of photocurrent for gold, copper, silver, and aluminum cluster of nanoparticles in different geometries including quadrilateral, hexagonal, octagonal, and dodecagonal was investigated at a wavelength range from 300 nm to 800 nm. Moreover, the basic factors of optical simulation such as absorption coefficient, generation rate, and electric field distribution are shown in the optimal case, and the important parasitic absorption challenge for the cluster of nanoparticles was considered in the calculation of the net absorption. The reference cell uses a perovskite absorber (CH3NH3PbI3) with a thickness of 250 nm, which can significantly reduce the amount of lead, and the solar cell's toxicity. The photocurrent density for the optimized case utilizing spherical cluster of nanoparticles is obtained 21.74mAcm−2, which is enhanced by approximately 25.6% compared to perovskite solar cells without nanoparticles. Finally, the best-case cluster nanoparticle is coated with an ultra-thin-film SiO2 layer, to help the chemical and thermal stability of metallic nanoparticles in the photoactive region. According to the final proposed model, the photocurrent of 22.28mAcm−2 and enhancement of 28.72% were obtained. Besides, the proposed solar cell's open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and conversion efficiency are calculated at around 1.003 V, 0.88, and 19.71%, respectively.