Design of a high-efficiency perovskite solar cell based on photonic crystal in the absorption layer

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have gained a lot of attention due to their high power conversion efficiency (PCE), low-cost materials, and simple manufacturing process. These cells can be improved further by using photonic crystals (PCs) which can increase light absorption. A PC-based perovskite solar cell was designed and simulated in this study using FDTD and CHARGE solvers of the Lumerical software, and its components showed better values compared to other solar cell structures. The study investigated the effect of a two-dimensional PC structure on the solar cell's light absorption. The materials used as photonic crystals were perovskite/rutile TiO2 and perovskite/InAs, and various radii and lattice constants were examined. A comparison between each type of PC with the flat structure was conducted. The simulation results indicate that the most efficient structure was found to be the perovskite/InAs structure with a radius of 40 nm and a lattice constant of 200 nm, resulting in an improvement in the performance of the perovskite solar cell. The flat solar cell structure exhibited a short-circuit current of 24.01 mA/cm2 and an efficiency of 17.34%. However, by adding a rutile TiO2 photonic crystal structure, the short circuit current and efficiency increased to 27.12 mA/cm2 and 19.94%, respectively. The efficiency and short circuit current could be further improved by adding an InAs photonic crystal structure, resulting in values of 20.97% and 28.03 mA/cm2, respectively. The improved performance of PC-based perovskite solar cells compared to PSC was due to the slow photon effect that occurred around the photonic bandgap, causing light to be trapped, and resulting in more electron-hole pairs being produced. In summary, this study demonstrates the potential to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells by utilizing photonic crystals.