Optical Simulation-Aided Design and Engineering of Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

Yifeng Zhao; Kunal Datta; Nga Phung; Andrea E A Bracesco; Valerio Zardetto; Giulia Paggiaro; Hanchen Liu; Mohua Fardousi; Rudi Santbergen; Paul Procel Moya; Can Han; Guangtao Yang; Junke Wang; Dong Zhang; Bas T van Gorkom; Tom P A van der Pol; Michael Verhage; Martijn M Wienk; Wilhelmus M M Kessels; Arthur Weeber; Miro Zeman; Luana Mazzarella; Mariadriana Creatore; René A J Janssen; Olindo Isabella

doi:10.1021/acsaem.3c00136

Optical Simulation-Aided Design and Engineering of Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

ACS Appl Energy Mater. 2023 May 3;6(10):5217-5229. doi: 10.1021/acsaem.3c00136. eCollection 2023 May 22.

Authors

Yifeng Zhao¹, Kunal Datta², Nga Phung³, Andrea E A Bracesco³, Valerio Zardetto⁴, Giulia Paggiaro¹, Hanchen Liu¹, Mohua Fardousi¹, Rudi Santbergen¹, Paul Procel Moya¹, Can Han¹, Guangtao Yang¹, Junke Wang², Dong Zhang^{2

4}, Bas T van Gorkom², Tom P A van der Pol², Michael Verhage², Martijn M Wienk², Wilhelmus M M Kessels³, Arthur Weeber^{1

5}, Miro Zeman¹, Luana Mazzarella¹, Mariadriana Creatore^{3

6}, René A J Janssen^{2

7}, Olindo Isabella¹

Affiliations

¹ Photovoltaic Materials and Devices Group, Delft University of Technology, Partner in Solliance, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands.
² Molecular Materials and Nanosystems, Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Partner in Solliance, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Applied Physics and Science of Education, Eindhoven University of Technology, Partner in Solliance, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
⁴ TNO, Partner in Solliance, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
⁵ TNO Energy Transition-Solar Energy, P.O. Box 15, 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands.
⁶ Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
⁷ Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research, 5612 AJ Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Monolithic perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells have attracted enormous research attention and have achieved efficiencies above 30%. This work describes the development of monolithic tandem solar cells based on silicon heterojunction (SHJ) bottom- and perovskite top-cells and highlights light management techniques assisted by optical simulation. We first engineered (i)a-Si:H passivating layers for (100)-oriented flat c-Si surfaces and combined them with various (n)a-Si:H, (n)nc-Si:H, and (n)nc-SiO_x:H interfacial layers for SHJ bottom-cells. In a symmetrical configuration, a long minority carrier lifetime of 16.9 ms was achieved when combining (i)a-Si:H bilayers with (n)nc-Si:H (extracted at the minority carrier density of 10¹⁵ cm^-3). The perovskite sub-cell uses a photostable mixed-halide composition and surface passivation strategies to minimize energetic losses at charge-transport interfaces. This allows tandem efficiencies above 23% (a maximum of 24.6%) to be achieved using all three types of (n)-layers. Observations from experimentally prepared devices and optical simulations indicate that both (n)nc-SiO_x:H and (n)nc-Si:H are promising for use in high-efficiency tandem solar cells. This is possible due to minimized reflection at the interfaces between the perovskite and SHJ sub-cells by optimized interference effects, demonstrating the applicability of such light management techniques to various tandem structures.