DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF NEW AGZNF3-BASED PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS BY USING SCAPS-1D

Abstract

The increasing energy demand globally, compounded by environmental concerns, is leading to the drive of renewable energy solutions which are cost effective, efficient and environmentally sustainable. The work investigated the potential of a new generation of AgZnF3-based PSC by comprehensively optimizing the electron transport layer (ETL), hole transport layer (HTL), absorber layer and other critical parameters such as thickness of absorber layer, defect density (Nt), electron affinity, operating temperature, work function of back contact, series and shunt resistance using SCAPS 1D software. AgZnF3, absorber layer has suitable bandgap of 1.521 eV with superior holes and electrons mobility facilitates efficient photon and charge transfer yet minimum recombination losses. The device structure, FTO/ETLs/AgZnF3/HTLs/back contact, was systematically investigated by varying the ETLs, HTLs and back contacts to identify the optimized configuration. Among the various ETLs, WS2 emerged the most appropriate ETL, while CBTS as HTL outperformed other HTLs by improving the charge extraction and minimizing loss due to recombination and exhibiting maximum efficiency for the device configuration of FTO/WS2/AgZnF3/CBTS/Au. The device obtained highest PCE of 31.77 % (with VOC of 1.38 V, JSC of 25.23 mA/cm2 and FF of 90.82 %) at optimized value of different important parameters which effects the device performance as follows: thickness of absorber layer is 550 nm, Nt of 1014 cm-3 and at 300 K. These findings emphasize the importance of AgZnF3-based PSCs and highlights the critical need for its commercial application.