Solar Energy, Vol.158, 424-431, 2017
Impact of metal electrode work function of CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells
The use of p-type silicon (p-Si) as hole transport materials (HTM) has been suggested to enhance the stability of perovskite-based solar cell (PSC). We design and simulate the CH3NH3PbI3/p-Si planar heterojunction perovskite solar cell and the power conversion efficiency exceeding 18%. In the solar cell, the metal electrode work function of perovskite solar cells is a decisive factor for built-in voltage (V-bi). The device simulation revealed that the V-bi and V-oc increases when rear electrode work function (Phi(M-rear)) decreasing from -4.3 eV to -4.7 eV, the V-bi almost saturate to the plateau and the performance is optimal when Phi(M-rear) = -4.8 to -5.2 eV. However, the work function of the front electrode (Phi(M-front)) also has a significant effect on the performance of p-Si perovskite solar cell. When Phi(M-front) decreasing from -3.4 to -4.0 eV, a higher performance can be obtained and the V-bi almost saturate to the plateau. The results showed the importance of the Phi(M) matching to maintain V-bi, which is useful guideline for the design of the p-Si perovskite solar cell.