Publication date: 17th February 2025
In recent years, nanotextured perovskite-based solar cells have been shown to perform better than devices with planar interfaces. Nanotextures between device layers improve the optical performance of the device, by reducing reflective losses and trapping light in the absorbing region, hence increasing absorptance and generating more charge carriers.
However this is not the only reason for an increased power conversion efficiency (PCE). Tockhorn et al.[1],[2] observed, that nanostructures improved the electrical properties of perovskite solar cells by also raising the open-circuit voltage (Voc). Experimentaly nanotextured devices show an average increase of 15mV in comparison to a planar solar cell. This behaviour is uncommon in silicon-based devices. The goal of this talk is to invastigate the theoretical reasons behind this.
In this study, we combine optical finite element simulations with electronic finite volume simulations. The former provides the profile of the generated charge carriers while the latter gives the resulting current density as well as the current densities of the radiative, Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) and surface recombination.
By using experimental material properties [3] we identified the SRH recombination as the main electrical loss mechanism. Moreover when increasing the applied voltage, devices with a higher nanotexture show less current loss due to SRH recombination leading to an increased VOC.
To cross-check these results, we altered the optical generation profile to be constant while keeping the total generation fixed. This did not impact the results, showing that the whole phenomenon is purely related to the altered geometry and its different electrical properties and not related to varing absorption profiles.
These insights help to further increase the performance of perovskite solar cells by improving the device design. Making solar cells even more competitive to other non-regenerative energy sources.
This work was partially supported by the
Leibniz competition 2020 (NUMSEMIC, J89/2019) as well as
the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research
Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – The Berlin
Mathematics Research Center MATH+ (EXC-2046/1, project
ID: 390685689). This project has received funding from the
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF
Forschungscampus MODAL, project number 05M20ZBM).
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