Fabrication and TCAD simulation of TiO2 nanorods electron transport layer based perovskite solar cells

Abstract This paper reports Pd/PTAA/hybrid perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3)/TiO2 nanorods (TNRs) based solar cell grown on a FTO coated glass substrate. The TNRs-layer, synthesized by low-cost hydrothermal process, acts as the electron transport layer (ETL) while the PTAA acts as the hole transport layer (HTL) in the device. The solar cells with different TNRs thickness are fabricated and characterized for the optimized performance parameters namely the short circuit current density (JSC), open circuit voltage (VOC), fill factor (FF), and power conversion efficiency (PCE). The Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator-One Dimensional (SCAPS-1D) is used to simulate the proposed solar cell structure for validating our experimental results. The effects of thickness variation of ETL on the solar cell parameters have been investigated by solving the drift-diffusion model. The measurements show that the efficiency of the solar cell is decreased with increased ETL thickness which is attributed to higher trap sites in the active layer and ETL. The optimized maximum efficiency of 15.04% is obtained for ETL thickness of 500 nm. The simulated results also show close similarity with the experimental results with an efficiency of 15.69%.