Comparative study on MAPbI₃ based solar cells using different electron transporting materials

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study on organometal halide perovskite based solar cells using two different transparent conducting oxides such as TiO2 and ZnO as electron transporting materials. Simulation is an interesting tool for studying the behavior of every component of a solar cell device as well as for analyzing the performance of the full device. Solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS)‐1D has been the tool used for numerical simulation of such devices. Influences of thickness of absorber and ETMs, interface trap density of states and dopant concentration of ETMs on the performance of photovoltaic solar cells are studied. Comparable efficiencies of 22.35% and 22.49% for PV devices made of spiro‐MeOTAD/MAPbI3/TiO2 and spiro‐MeOTAD/MAPbI3/ZnO, respectively, with 400/400/90 nm thicknesses under 1 Sun illumination are observed. The performance of both devices indicates the replacement of the TiO2 by a ZnO layer. It could be a good option to reduce the cost and increase the mobility of ETM for this type of solar cells. Generally, increase in thickness of MAPbI3 perovskite up to around 700 nm results into increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the solar cells. On the other hand, TiO2 and ZnO layers thicker than 90 nm results into decrease in the efficiency of the devices. Furthermore, the increase in interface trap density is found to reduce the efficiency of the devices. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Analysis of the power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells with different materials as Hole-Transport Layer by numerical simulations

“…This simulation program solves numerically the three basic semiconductor equations: the Poisson and the continuity equations for holes and for electrons. It has been applied to the numerical simulation of perovskite solar cells recently [7,10].…”

“…Table 1 summarizes the physical parameters used for each layer in the numerical analysis, where N C and N V are the effective density of states (DOS) in the conduction and the valence bands, respectively; μn and μp are the electron and hole mobilities, respectively; ε is the relative permittivity; and NA and ND are the acceptor and donor impurity concentrations, respectively. These values were extracted either from literature [6,7,10,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] or estimated as in the case of NC, NV, NA and ND for the inorganic HTL materials. Specifically, NC, NV, NA and ND for spiro-OMeTAD were extracted from literature [6,10].…”

“…These values were extracted either from literature [6,7,10,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] or estimated as in the case of NC, NV, NA and ND for the inorganic HTL materials. Specifically, NC, NV, NA and ND for spiro-OMeTAD were extracted from literature [6,10]. These values are a good first-approximation for each inorganic material considered in this work.…”

“…The effects of variations in the characteristics of the perovskite layer and of the interfaces with the other two layers have been investigated recently through modeling and simulation techniques [5][6][7][8]. In another works, a comparative study using two different transparent conducting oxides such as TiO2 and ZnO as electron transporting materials have been recently researched [9,10]. The ETL, HTL and the perovskite layers are the path that photogenerated carriers must travel before being collected.…”

“…All inorganic compounds under consideration in this study are promising candidate for hole transporting material and electron blocking layer [11,12]. The authors have previously used numerical simulations in order to study the behavior of solar cells and PIN photodiodes under different operating conditions [10,[13][14][15].…”