Design and development of CsSnI3 solar cell using SCAPS-1D simulation

Abstract

"Solar cells are popular because they offer a clean, renewable way to produce elec- tricity from sunlight without harming the environment. Recently, lead-based per- ovskites have been used in the absorber layer in the construction of solar cells due to their ability to absorb light, high carrier mobility, and tunable band gap. However, lead is known to be toxic, posing safety challenges for the environment. To address this problem, extensive research is being conducted to find alternatives, such as de- veloping safer lead-free perovskites. This study proposes a model for a lead-free solar cell consisting of a cesium tin io- dide perovskite in the absorber layer. A simulation was conducted using SCAPS-1D software, which allows users to create a model and analyze its various properties. Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) was chosen as the transparent conducting layer. [6,6]- Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), an organic compound, was chosen as the electron transport layer (ETL), and Copper Iron Tin Sulfide (CFTS) was used for the hole transport layer (HTL). Cesium Tin Iodide (CsSnI3) was used as the absorber layer, which was sandwiched between the ETL and HTL. Lastly, gold (Au) was used to serve as contacts between the layers. Once the device was modeled, several parameters, such as the thickness of each layer, doping concentrations, electron affinities, and temperatures, were varied to study their impact on power conversion efficiency (PCE), fill factor (FF), open- circuit voltage (Voc), and short-circuit current (Isc). The simulation indicated that the maximum obtained power conversion efficiency stood at 26.9% for this device at a temperature of 298 K by optimizing these param- eters. The results demonstrate that the device is a promising alternative to both the current market-available solar cells and lead-based perovskite solar cells."