A Promising Design for Enhanced Performance of Perovskite Solar Cells: Metal Contacts with Shifted Work Function

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have garnered considerable interest as a prospective photovoltaic technology, but their manufacture with a flawless multi-layered structure is a daunting task. The presence of charge transport layers (CTLs) and their corresponding interfaces with the perovskite layer give rise to problems such as recombination, hysteresis, and instability, which restrict the performance of PSCs. This study proposes a unique approach to model CTL-free PSCs with metal work function shifted connections in order to surmount this challenge. The suggested design employs metal work function (MWF) shifted contacts to mimic CTL-free PSCs. The metal work function of the left contact ranges from 3.9 to 4.5 eV, whereas the metal work function of the right contact ranges from 4.6 to 5.5 eV. The design obviates the need for CTLs, and the collection of charges is accomplished via an electric field created by using two metals of different work functions as cathode and anode. The simulated CTL-free PSC displayed excellent performance, with a JSC of 17.8 mA.cm ^-2 , VOC of 712 mV, FF of 68.5%, and PCE of 8.7%. The proposed design offers a promising path for the development of next-generation, interface defect-free, and hysteresis-free PSCs. The resulting design eliminates the requirement for charge transport layers (CTLs), and the collection of charges is accomplished via an electric field created by the metal contacts.