Light trapping in perovskite solar cells with plasmonic core/shell nanorod array: A numerical study

In this paper, using finite element method (FEM) as a three-dimensional simulation, the light trapping mechanism due to the use of plasmonic core/shell nanorod (PLCS-NR) array as well as its effect on absorption, generation, transfer of carriers and power conversion efficiency (PCE) in a perovskite solar cell (PSC) has been investigated. The short-circuit current density (Jsc) increased due to the increase in the carrier generation rate in a PSC with a light-trapping architecture under the normal-angle sunlight (AM1.5G). Moreover, by choosing gold (Au) and silver (Ag) as the core and CuSCN as the shell in the PLCS-NR, the active layer (AL) absorption is increased compared to the planar structure. Using this proposed structure in the PSC can help improve the recombination rate and reduce it. The simulation results show that the device performance is highly dependent on the core and shell materials, and the height of the PLCS-NRs. Overall, an optimum height of 120 nm, a core radius of 10 nm, and Ag as the core were achieved for the PLCS-NRs in the PSC with Jsc of 23.12 mA/cm2, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 1 V, and the PCE of 19.33%.