Electron transport material effect on performance of perovskite solar cells based on CH3NH3GeI3

Recently, organic-inorganic perovskite-based solar cells have become promising devices due to their unique proprieties in photovoltaic field. In this scenario, several studies focusing on perovskite solar cells based on Pb-perovskite layer. However, the factor of toxicity and stability of these devices is the main challenge to the progress in commercial production. In this study, a numerical modeling of perovskite solar cells using an alternative candidate which is Germanium as a perovskite material. This later is investigated in order to overcome the toxicity and stability effects on perovskite solar cells, and they exhibit similar photovoltaic performances as Pb-perovskite solar cells. Therefore, the effect of different kinds of electron transporting layer (ETL) materials on Ge-perovskite solar cell design is studied and investigated to enhance the conversion efficiency of perovskite devices. The obtained simulation results illustrate that perovskite solar cells based on C-60 as ETL exhibit 13.5% of power conversion efficiency compared to that with other ETL materials. Thus, inserting C-60 in perovskite solar cell design possibly will be considered as novel designing for future Ge-perovskite solar cells. The numerical simulation was performed using 1D-Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator (1D- SCAPS).