Comparative study on MAPbI 3 based solar cells using different electron transporting materials

This paper presents a comparative study on organometal halide perovskite based solar cells using two different transparent conducting oxides such as TiO 2 and ZnO as electron transporting materials. Simulation is an interesting tool for studying the behavior of every component of a solar cell device as well as for analyzing the performance of the full device. Solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS)‐1D has been the tool used for numerical simulation of such devices. Influences of thickness of absorber and ETMs, interface trap density of states and dopant concentration of ETMs on the performance of photovoltaic solar cells are studied. Comparable efficiencies of 22.35% and 22.49% for PV devices made of spiro‐MeOTAD/MAPbI 3 /TiO 2 and spiro‐MeOTAD/MAPbI 3 /ZnO, respectively, with 400/400/90 nm thicknesses under 1 Sun illumination are observed. The performance of both devices indicates the replacement of the TiO 2 by a ZnO layer. It could be a good option to reduce the cost and increase the mobility of ETM for this type of solar cells. Generally, increase in thickness of MAPbI 3 perovskite up to around 700 nm results into increase in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the solar cells. On the other hand, TiO 2 and ZnO layers thicker than 90 nm results into decrease in the efficiency of the devices. Furthermore, the increase in interface trap density is found to reduce the efficiency of the devices. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)