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Design and optimization of 26.3% efficient perovskite/FeSi2 monolithic tandem solar cell

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Abstract

A multijunction or tandem technique comprising a wide bandgap top cell and a narrow bandgap bottom cell may be a major stepping stone in an attempt to obtain high-efficiency solar cells. However, easier said than done, it takes a lot to correctly optimize the structure of all the involved layers so as to possibly obtain the desired results. In this paper, a perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3)/FeSi2 (p-i-n structure) 2-terminal (2-T) monolithic tandem solar cell is proposed and investigated using AFORS-HET v2.5 1D simulator. A hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)/hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon oxide (µc-Si1−xOx:H) tunnel recombination junction is employed to interconnect both perovskite and FeSi2 solar cell for current matching. The influence of both top and bottom absorber layer thickness is analyzed to optimize the device performance. The study reveals an optimized 26.3% efficient perovskite/FeSi2 monolithic tandem solar cell with JSC (21.4 mA cm−2), VOC (1.63 V), and FF (74.86%). The results in this paper suggest FeSi2 material with 0.87 eV bandgap as an alternative for narrow bandgap bottom cell for the perovskite-based tandem solar cells so as to obtain much higher efficiencies.

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Acknowledgements

Rahul Pandey is grateful to SERB, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India for sanction of project grant under the Start-up Research Grant (SRG) scheme with file number: SRG/2019/000941. Team of authors acknowledge the time spent by all other members of VLSI center of excellence, Chitkara University, Punjab, India for useful discussions to give a focused direction to this research work. Permission from administration of Chitkara University for providing all the support to carry on this research work is also acknowledged.

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  1. VLSI Centre of Excellence, Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, India

    Anisha Pathania, Rahul Pandey, Jaya Madan & Rajnish Sharma

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  1. Anisha Pathania
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  2. Rahul Pandey
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  3. Jaya Madan
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Correspondence to Rahul Pandey, Jaya Madan or Rajnish Sharma.

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Pathania, A., Pandey, R., Madan, J. et al. Design and optimization of 26.3% efficient perovskite/FeSi2 monolithic tandem solar cell. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 15218–15224 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-04086-z

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