Tapered Coaxial Arrays for Photon‐ and Plasmon‐Enhanced Light Harvesting in Perovskite Solar Cells: A Theoretical Investigation Using the Finite Element Method

Abstract

Although there have been reports of separate studies of photon-enhanced and plasmon-enhanced light harvesting to improve perovskite solar cell (PSC) efficiency, there are none that have achieved simultaneous enhancement in both photonic and plasmonic effects in PSCs. In this work, we designed a layer of tapered coaxial humps (TCHs) to harvest both in PSCs. The light absorption behavior of the textured perovskite layer in PSCs was systematically investigated through the finite element method (FEM). The calculation results show that the TCH-textured perovskite layer absorbs 67.6 % of visible light under AM 1.5G solar irradiation, a 21.8 % increase relative to the planar reference cell without TCHs. Using this design, a perovskite thickness of only 106 nm is needed to realize the full light absorption that normally requires 300-nm-thick perovskite without TCHs. To reveal the mechanism of light absorption enhancement, the specific field distributions were studied. We demonstrated that different photonic modes and plasmonic modes collectively result in remarkable light absorption enhancement in the 500-800 nm wavelength range. The textured PSCs reported herein provide an effective method to decrease Pb-based perovskite consumption and realize angleinsensitive and ultrathin PSCs.

Ameliorating Properties of Perovskite and Perovskite–Silicon Tandem Solar Cells via Mesoporous Antireflection Coating Model

“…[ 49 ] The equivalent n of the mesoporous ARC is calculated using the following equation. [ 17–20,40 ] $$\[ \begin{array}{*{20}{c}}{n_{\rm{m}}^2 = \left( {n_{\rm{o}}^2 - 1} \right)\;\left( {1 - V} \right) + 1}\end{array} \]$$where n m represents the equivalent n of the mesoporous ARC, n o is the n of the material used in the dense ARC, and V represents the void ratio of the mesoporous ARC. Moreover, when the incident light passes through the mesoporous ARC, owing to its special hole structure and void ratio, the light will be refracted and reflected multiple times in the mesoporous ARC.…”

“…For the same ARM, the reflection of PSCs is approximately close to zero at a wavelength of 660 nm, which proves that the incident wavelength also has a certain influence on the reflection ). [17,[20][21][22] When ARM is closely arranged in the ARC, no matter how the aperture changes, the value of the void ratio is fixed (22%), so the equivalent n of the ARM is only related to the nature of the material. When the n value of the dense material is larger, the difference between the n m value and 1.23 is also larger, so the reflection loss on the surface of PSCs is also greater.…”

“…device performance. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] The main energy loss in transforming solar energy into electrical energy is attributed to the Shockley-Queisser (S-Q) limit, i.e., non-absorption of low-energy photons and the thermal loss of high-energy photons. [2,23] The optical loss occurred due to the photons that cannot be gathered by the perovskite layer or converted into photo carriers.…”

Optical Simulations in Perovskite Devices: A Critical Analysis

“…Upon conducting an FEM simulation on the light absorption behavior of the perovskite layer, it was revealed that the textured perovskite layer absorbs 21.8% more light than the planar reference cell, and only a 106 nm thick textured layer is required to achieve the same absorption as a 300 nm planar one. 132 Similarly, Abdelraouf et al investigated the effect of a nanotubular architecture in the perovskite layer on light absorption and PCE using FEM. It was found that the nanostructure enhanced the active area absorption by 6% and the total generation rate by 7% compared to the planar PSC.…”

“…Again, Chen et al used FEM to design a layer of tapered coaxial humps to increase light absorption in the perovskite layer through photon- and plasmon-enhanced light harvesting. Upon conducting an FEM simulation on the light absorption behavior of the perovskite layer, it was revealed that the textured perovskite layer absorbs 21.8% more light than the planar reference cell, and only a 106 nm thick textured layer is required to achieve the same absorption as a 300 nm planar one . Similarly, Abdelraouf et al investigated the effect of a nanotubular architecture in the perovskite layer on light absorption and PCE using FEM.…”