Towards High-Efficiency Photon Trapping in Thin-Film Perovskite Solar Cells Using Etched Fractal Metadevices

• Published in: Materials Vol. 16; no. 11; p. 3934
• Main Authors: Bărar, Ana, Maclean, Stephen Akwei, Dănilă, Octavian, Taylor, André D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 24.05.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Antireflection coatings; Comparative studies; Design; Dielectric films; Domains; Efficiency; Electric fields; electromagnetic field control; Energy conversion efficiency; Energy dissipation; fractal metadevices; Fractals; Investigations; Light; light trapping structures; Optical properties; Perovskite; perovskite solar cells; Perovskites; Photons; Photovoltaic cells; Radiation; Solar batteries; Solar cells; Solar energy industry; Texturing; Thin films; Trapping; electromagnetic field control; light trapping structures; fractal metadevices; perovskite solar cells
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma16113934

Reflective loss is one of the main factors contributing to power conversion efficiency limitation in thin-film perovskite solar cells. This issue has been tackled through several approaches, such as anti-reflective coatings, surface texturing, or superficial light-trapping metastructures. We report detailed simulation-based investigations on the photon trapping capabilities of a standard Methylammonium Lead Iodide (MAPbI3) solar cell, with its top layer conveniently designed as a fractal metadevice, to reach a reflection value R<0.1 in the visible domain. Our results show that, under certain architecture configurations, reflection values below 0.1 are obtained throughout the visible domain. This represents a net improvement when compared to the 0.25 reflection yielded by a reference MAPbI3 having a plane surface, under identical simulation conditions. We also present the minimum architectural requirements of the metadevice by comparing it to simpler structures of the same family and performing a comparative study. Furthermore, the designed metadevice presents low power dissipation and exhibits approximately similar behavior regardless of the incident polarization angle. As a result, the proposed system is a viable candidate for being a standard requirement in obtaining high-efficiency perovskite solar cells.