Numerical Study of Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) Layer on the Performance of Methyl-Ammonium Tin Iodide (CH3NH3SnI3) Perovskite Solar Cells Using SCAPS

Substrates used in perovskite solar cells as front contact are usually transparent conductive oxide (TCO) to allow light to pass through the device. The dominating TCO employed in perovskite solar cells are indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) and fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). However, it is imperative to investigate alternative TCOs due to the scarcity of indium metal, relatively low electrical conductivity and high leakage current in ITO and FTO. In this study, simulation has been carried out using Solar Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS) to investigate the efficiency of methyl-ammonium tin iodide (CH3NH3SnI3) based solar cells including various TCOs such as boron-doped zinc oxide (BZO), molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) and zinc oxide (ZnO). TCO parameters such as thickness, donor concentration and operating temperature were varied to study their influence on device performance. The best device performance was achieved using MoO3 with power conversion efficiency of 25.83 % and Jsc, Voc and FF of 32.44 mA/cm2, 0.979 V and 81.38 % respectively. The work shows the potential of fabricating an improved CH3NH3SnI3 perovskite solar cell with MoO3 as front contact.