Device Characterization and Performance Optimization of Perovskite Solar Cell using Opto-Electronic Modeling

Sumanshu Agarwal^a, Pradeep R. Nair^b

^aDepartment of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay India, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076

^bIIT Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Department Electrical Engineering, India

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Sumanshu Agarwal, 191
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Solar photovoltaics (PV) is regarded as one of the most promising renewable energy technologies and is expected to play an important role towards meeting the ever increasing global energy needs. While crystalline silicon based solar cells continue to be the preferred technology for solar power plants, recent literature indicates that the research on organic based solar cells is entering an exciting phase. In particular, perovskite based solar cells have attracted significant research interest and efficiencies approaching 20% has recently been reported¹. Despite these remarkable experimental advances, many important aspects regarding the device operation, stability, and eventual prospects of perovskite solar cells being developed as a mature technology are not still clearly elucidated. With the aim of developing a predictive capability towards panel level performance estimation of this class of solar cells, here we report our theoretical work on the IV characteristics of perovskite based solar cells and identify the key functional parameters towards performance optimization. To explore the device physics of perovskite based solar cells, we performed self-consistent numerical simulation of continuity and Poisson’s equations with the appropriate material parameters.Our detailed numerical simulations indicate that the dark IV characteristics of these solar cells are dominated by trap assisted carrier recombination in the low bias regime and transport limited in high bias regime. These predictions are well supported by experimental data from different laboratories². Trap assisted carrier recombination is evident from the observed diode ideality factor of 2 in low bias regime. A voltage exponent of 2 was observed in high bias regime which is indication of space charge limited current (SCLC). Further, the high bias current shows an inverse dependency of current density on L³ (L is the thickness of hole transport layer) which confirms the SCLC in the device. In addition, we addressed the light IV characteristics of the device through detailed optical modeling and carrier transport simulations. Our modeling strategy accurately reproduces the light IV characteristics reported by Liu et al.^3,4 Through these simulations, we find there could be significant charge trapping that could result in some interesting observations like IV cross-over, hysteresis, invalidity of super-position, etc.⁵Curiously, our analysis also indicates that the bias dependent carrier collection is a major concern for perovskite solar cells that limits the eventual efficiency. These insights allow us to propose optimization routes for improving the efficiency beyond the current reports of 20%.
Figure1. Band level alignment of a perovskite based solar cell. Transport paths are shown by arrows. While green arrow depicts the possible transport path for a carrier, a forbidden path is shown by red arrow with cross mark.
(1) Huanping Zhou; Qi Chen; Gang Li; Song Luo; Tze-bing Song; Hsin-Sheng Duan; Ziruo Hong; Jingbi You; Yongsheng Liu; Yang Yang. Interface Engineering of Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells. Science 2014, 345, 542–546. (2) Agarwal, S.; Seetharaman, M.; Kumawat, N. K.; Subbiah, A. S.; Sarkar, S. K.; Kabra, D.; Namboothiry, M. A. G.; Nair, P. R. On the Uniqueness of Ideality Factor and Voltage Exponent of Perovskite-Based Solar Cells. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 4115–4121. (3) Liu, M.; Johnston, M. B.; Snaith, H. J. Efficient Planar Heterojunction Perovskite Solar Cells by Vapour Deposition. Nature 2013, 501, 395–402. (4) Agarwal, S.; Nair, P. R. Performance Optimization for Perovskite Based Solar Cells. In IEEE-PVSC40; IEEE: Denver, 2014; pp. 1515–1518. (5) Agarwal, S.; Nair, P. R. Opto-Electronic Modelling of Perovskite Based Solar Cell (Submitted).

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