Analyzing the ZnO and CH3NH3PbI3 as Emitter Layer for Silicon Based Heterojunction Solar Cells

Today, it has become an important task to modify existing tradi-tional silicon-based solar cell factory to produce high-efficiency silicon-based heterojunction solar cells, at a lower cost. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze CH3NH3PbI3 and ZnO materials as an emitter layer for p-type silicon wafer-based heterojunction solar cells. CH3NH3PbI3 and ZnO can be synthesized using the cheap Sol-Gel method and can form n-type semi-conductor. We propose to combine these two materials since CH3NH3PbI3 is a great light absorber and ZnO has an optimal complex refractive index which can be used as antireflection material. The photoelectric parameters of n-CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si, n-ZnO/p-Si, and n-Si/p-Si solar cells have been studied in the range of 20-200 nm of emitter layer thickness. It has been found that the short circuit current for CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si and n-ZnO/p-Si solar cells is almost the same when the emitter layer thickness is in the range of 20-100 nm. Additionally, when the emitter layer thickness is greater than 100 nm, the short circuit current of CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si exceeds that of n-ZnO/p-Si. The optimal emitter layer thickness for n-CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si and n-ZnO/p-Si was found equal to 80 nm. Using this value, the short-circuit current and the fill factor were estimated around 18.27 mA/cm2 and 0.77 for n-CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si and 18.06 mA/cm2 and 0.73 for n-ZnO/p-Si. Results show that the efficiency of n-CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si and n-ZnO/p-Si solar cells with an emitter layer thick-ness of 80 nm are 1.314 and 1.298 times greater than efficiency of traditional n-Si/p-Si for the same sizes. These findings will help perovskites materials to be more appealing in the PV industry and accelerate their development to become a viable alternative in the renewable energy sector.