Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar Cells
In the competition of solar cell efficiency, besides top-performance multijunction cells, tandem cells based on perovskites are also breaking efficiency records to enter into the 30% range. Their design takes advantage of the rapid development of perovskite cells, and the good sharing of the availab...
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MDPI AG
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/4/1854 |
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| author | Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy Oscar Esteban Alexander Cuadrado Javier Alda |
| author_facet | Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy Oscar Esteban Alexander Cuadrado Javier Alda |
| author_sort | Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the competition of solar cell efficiency, besides top-performance multijunction cells, tandem cells based on perovskites are also breaking efficiency records to enter into the 30% range. Their design takes advantage of the rapid development of perovskite cells, and the good sharing of the available spectrum between the perovskite, absorbing at short wavelengths, and the c-Si or similar lower band gap material, working at longer wavelengths. In this paper, we present a novel tandem solar cell that combines crystalline silicon (c-Si) and perovskites cells. We analyzed the device with computational electromagnetism based on the finite element method. Our design arranges the perovskite solar cell as a multilayer 1D grating, which is terminated with a gold thin film (top metallic contact). This multilayer nanostructure is placed on top of the c-Si cell and a thin protective dielectric layer of aluminum nitride covers the whole device. The short-circuit current of the perovskite cell is maximized by maintaining the current-matching conditions with the output from the c-Si cell. This optimization considers the geometrical parameters of the grating: period and thickness of the active layer of the perovskite cell. We compared the simulated short-circuit current of this device to the planar tandem solar cell with indium tin oxide (top contact). The comparison shows a slight increment, around 3%, of our device’s performance. Moreover, it has the potential capability to circumvent postprocessing procedures used with transparent contact oxides, which can reduce the device’s final efficiency. Furthermore, our proposed design can take advantage of photolithographic and nanoimprint techniques, enabling large-scale production at a relatively low cost. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:42:17Z |
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| id | doaj.art-1a03938148894e489cf6bb46830af673 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T22:42:17Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-1a03938148894e489cf6bb46830af6732023-11-23T18:35:13ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-02-01124185410.3390/app12041854Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar CellsMahmoud H. Elshorbagy0Oscar Esteban1Alexander Cuadrado2Javier Alda3Applied Optics Complutense Group, Faculty of Optics and Optometry, University Complutense of Madrid, 28037 Madrid, SpainPhotonics Engineering Group, University of Alcalá, 28054 Madrid, SpainEscuela de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, University Rey Juan Carlos, 28933 Madrid, SpainApplied Optics Complutense Group, Faculty of Optics and Optometry, University Complutense of Madrid, 28037 Madrid, SpainIn the competition of solar cell efficiency, besides top-performance multijunction cells, tandem cells based on perovskites are also breaking efficiency records to enter into the 30% range. Their design takes advantage of the rapid development of perovskite cells, and the good sharing of the available spectrum between the perovskite, absorbing at short wavelengths, and the c-Si or similar lower band gap material, working at longer wavelengths. In this paper, we present a novel tandem solar cell that combines crystalline silicon (c-Si) and perovskites cells. We analyzed the device with computational electromagnetism based on the finite element method. Our design arranges the perovskite solar cell as a multilayer 1D grating, which is terminated with a gold thin film (top metallic contact). This multilayer nanostructure is placed on top of the c-Si cell and a thin protective dielectric layer of aluminum nitride covers the whole device. The short-circuit current of the perovskite cell is maximized by maintaining the current-matching conditions with the output from the c-Si cell. This optimization considers the geometrical parameters of the grating: period and thickness of the active layer of the perovskite cell. We compared the simulated short-circuit current of this device to the planar tandem solar cell with indium tin oxide (top contact). The comparison shows a slight increment, around 3%, of our device’s performance. Moreover, it has the potential capability to circumvent postprocessing procedures used with transparent contact oxides, which can reduce the device’s final efficiency. Furthermore, our proposed design can take advantage of photolithographic and nanoimprint techniques, enabling large-scale production at a relatively low cost.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/4/1854tandem perovskite/c-Si solar cellnanostructured metallic top contactoptical modelingcomputational electromagnetism |
| spellingShingle | Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy Oscar Esteban Alexander Cuadrado Javier Alda Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar Cells Applied Sciences tandem perovskite/c-Si solar cell nanostructured metallic top contact optical modeling computational electromagnetism |
| title | Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar Cells |
| title_full | Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar Cells |
| title_fullStr | Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar Cells |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar Cells |
| title_short | Nanostructured Top Contact as an Alternative to Transparent Conductive Oxides in Tandem Perovskite/c-Si Solar Cells |
| title_sort | nanostructured top contact as an alternative to transparent conductive oxides in tandem perovskite c si solar cells |
| topic | tandem perovskite/c-Si solar cell nanostructured metallic top contact optical modeling computational electromagnetism |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/4/1854 |
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