Numerical investigation of a novel solar cell based on a modified perovskite with PPP polymer

Abstract

In this paper, a new, highly efficient and eco-friendly solar cell device based on a modified perovskite material from CsMAFA, with a polymer as an absorber layer, is modelled and simulated by utilizing the SCAPS-1D. An encouraging conversion power efficiency of 23.5% is achieved by optimizing several core parameters in the absorber layer and the device structure. The obtained results show remarkable progress in the solar cell performance by increasing the absorber layer's thickness. Indeed, increasing the thickness to 1000 nm is desirable to promote the light absorption process and solar cell efficiency. High doping density in the absorber layer adversely impacted solar cell performance. Additionally, increasing the defect density above 1×1016 cm−3 yielded a sharp degradation in device performance. This is ascribed to a reduction in the lifetime and the diffusion length of the charge carriers and turned out toward the electron-hole recombination process. Adjusting the electron affinity of the absorber layer at 4.49 eV presented a valued step toward optimizing the device performance through having better band alignment between the layers. The simulations results demonstrated that the device performance starts to be impeded if a metal with a work function less than 5 eV is used as a back contact layer. Finally, the solar cell displayed a continuous degraded behavior with increasing the temperature. The device operates optimally at 300 K. It is believed that this study represents an added value in the field of simulation and fabrication high-efficiency perovskite solar cells and optoelectronic devices.