Light Management in Perovskite Photovoltaic Solar Cells: A Perspective

Abstract

configuration, a net performance increase was recently demonstrated compared to single junction PPSC. [6] As for any optoelectronic device, light management in PPSC is of primary importance in attaining the best performance. As schematized in Figure 1, LM is expected to impact three key performance parameters: i) impinging sunlight can be efficiently collected and then absorbed leading to high J sc , ii) V oc can be enhanced as a result of the so-called photon recycling (PR), [7] provided there is strong external luminescence, [8] and the semiconductor exhibits weak non-radiative recombinations, iii) the energy yield (EY) that tends to replace the two previous criteria usually considered under standard test conditions (STC). However, for the latter, requested studies remain complex because they couple illumination models and angular-dependent optical, thermal, and electrical models of the cell for one year. [9,10] Nonetheless, simply considering the incidence angle in the evaluation of absorption and thus J sc is a first step toward EY improvement.As illustrated in Figure 1, the LM in PPSC results from three interdependent considerations: the photonic engineering (PE) at the wavelength scale, the material choices, and the nanofabrication processes. In practice, the last two directly define the PPSC architecture.In brief, regardless of the envisaged semiconductor, the LM can invoke several kinds of PE. Most frequently, the LM results in anti-reflection (AR) over the whole absorbed spectral range, leading to a larger J sc as well as possibly larger EY if the AR effect also occurs over a wide angular domain. Moreover, beyond the AR effects, light trapping (LT) mechanisms can be involved at the band edge of the perovskite material, also leading to a larger J sc , [11,12] whereas enhanced PR can enhance V oc [13] because of the absorption suppression just above the band gap under the previously mentioned conditions. This well-established PE is reviewed in more detail in Section 4.2. The LM could even be extended to the infrared domain to possibly limit the parasitic sub-band gap absorption and enhance the thermal radiation, to decrease the operating temperature. [14] Finally, for the specific case of 2T tandem PPSC, the LM is required to ensure concurrent absorption optimization and current matching between the two cells.In the specific case of metal-halide perovskites, intrinsic properties make these materials particularly relevant for LT, compared to the standard case of c-Si solar cells. First, metal-halide perovskites are direct band gap semiconductors, Light management is essential for metal-halide perovskite solar cells to achieve record performance. In this review, criteria on materials, processes, and photonic engineering are established to enhance primarily the short circuit current density for high energy yields. These criteria are used to analyze a large panel of solutions envisaged in the literature for single junction cells. In addition, a perspective acquired from rigorous electromagnetic simulations per...

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