Numerical analysis of emerging concept of perovskite/silicon heterojunction solar cells

This paper presents insight into the emerging concept of planar perovskite/silicon heterojunction solar cells. Here, we report optimum efficiency of 26.46% for Pt/p-CH3NH3PbI3/n-cSi/Ag and 25.95% for Al/n-CH3NH3PbI3/p-cSi/Au heterojunction solar cells. Thickness and doping concentration optimizations of the (p/n)-CH3NH3PbI3 and (n/p)-c-Si layers were carried out using SCAPS-1D. Various front and back contact metals, including Al, Ag, Cu, Au and Pt, were analysed for these perovskite/silicon heterojunction solar cells. Al and Ag at the front contact with Au at the back contact exhibited maximum efficiency for n-CH3NH3PbI3/p-cSi heterojunction solar cells. Similarly, maximum efficiency was observed for Al and Ag at the back contact with Pt at the front contact for p-CH3NH3PbI3/n-cSi. Moreover, the impact of interface defect states on the performance was analysed considering the perovskite/silicon interface properties significantly governing the photo-generated charge carrier transport across the heterojunction. Pt/p-CH3NH3PbI3/n-cSi/Ag was more tolerant to perovskite/silicon interface defects than Al/n-CH3NH3PbI3/p-cSi/Au heterojunction solar cells.