Towards Enhanced Efficiency of CsSnI3 Lead-Free Perovskite Solar Cells via Embedding Plasmonic Nanoparticles and Back Grooves: FDTD-SCAPS Numerical Simulations

Lead-free perovskite solar cells (LFP SCs) emerged as potential alternatives for elaborating high-efficiency eco-friendly photovoltaic systems. However, further improvements in terms of light trapping optimization and short-circuit current should be developed to overcome the efficiency limitation. In this work, a design framework based on coupling plasmon-induced charge separation gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) and light trapping engineering using back grooves is proposed, to enhance the photovoltaic performance of the CsSnI3 solar cell. Accurate numerical models based on combined Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD)-SCAPS calculations are performed including the influence of Au-NPs and back grooves. In addition, particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is used to boost up the absorption capabilities of the proposed CsSnI3 solar cell, where the best distribution of Au-NPs (radius = 38 nm, period = 365 nm) and geometry of back grooves (period = 183 nm, height = 76 nm, and width = 190 nm) are successfully selected. The recorded power conversion efficiency of the proposed CsSnI3 solar cell could achieve 5.75% and a high short-circuit current of 23.3 mA/cm(2) is reached by considering the optimized structure. Consequently, the obtained high-photovoltaic properties demonstrate the potential of the proposed design strategy for designing efficient LFP SC by exploiting plasmonic effects combined with light management engineering.