Modeling and numerical simulation of high efficiency perovskite solar cell with three active layers

Recently, organic–inorganic metal halide perovskites, due to their promising optical properties, are widely used in solar cell applications yielding power conversion efficiencies (PCE) above 21%. In this study, using solar cell capacitance one-dimensional tool (SCAPS-1D), we have numerically simulated a novel solar cell consisting of three perovskite absorbers (MASnI3, MAPbI3 and FAMASnGeI3) as the active layer and achieved power conversion efficiency of 30.77%. We have also compared the performance of the proposed triple active layer perovskite solar cell (PSC) with single (MAPbI3) and double (MASnI3, MAPbI3) active layer PSCs and observed that the triple active layer PSC outperforms the single and double layer structures. Moreover, changing hole transport layer (HTL), it is found that inorganic Cu2O can be a suitable substitute for expensive prevalent organic Spiro-OMeTAD as HTL of our PSC and enhances the device PCE to 31.04%. In addition, by increasing the first absorber layer’s (MASnI3) thickness, while maintaining the total active layer thickness constant, a high PCE of 31.44% for triple active layer PSC is achieved. Furthermore, it is shown that materials with work functions more than 4.4 eV are not appropriate to be used as front contact of this structure. Finally, our simulations indicate that increase of defect density in absorber layers and working temperature of the cell monotonically degrade the efficiency of the device. We believe that the proposed triple active layer PSC can open a new route for realization of highly efficient PSCs.