Simulation and analysis of high-performance hole transport material SrZrS3-based perovskite solar cells with a theoretical efficiency approaching 26%

Abstract

To process the toxicity and stability issues of hybrid lead halide perovskites, we suggest chalcogenide perovskites as an actual alternative family of material-based solar cells. Zr-based chalcogenides AZrS3 (A = Ba, Ca, or Sr) are the most studied family of chalcogenide perovskites for optoelectronic applications, thanks to their low cost, strong absorbency, and high PCE. A device simulation of SrZrS3 as an absorbing material solar cell, as well as a proposal of low-cost Hole Transport Materials HTMs (Cu2O, CuSCN, and NiOx), were achieved by using the software SCAPS-1D. The key parameters (thickness, doping concentration (NA), and temperature) for each configuration are varied to inspect their impact on the device’s performance. In the interest of replacing the highly expensive gold (Au) electrode, the functionality of the metal work function was also investigated. As a result, we have found that for SrZrS3, the optimized configuration is: Ni (metal back contact)/NiOx (HTM)/SrZrS3 (Absorber)/ZnO (ETM)/FTO, which delivered at 400 K: a PCE of 25.97%, a VOC of 1.18 V, a JSC of 26.13 mA/cm2 and an FF of 84.29%.