Simulation of innovative high efficiency perovskite solar cell with Bi-HTL: NiO and Si thin films

The nickel oxide based planar heterojunction perovskite solar cell (PSC) is considered potentially stable, while its efficiency has not yet shown outstanding. However, by using double hole transport layers, a nickel oxide layer and a crystalline silicon layer, the paper reports the PSC reaches high efficiency of over 35% (J_SC = 35.87 mA/cm², V_OC = 1.2 V, FF = 81.7%) according to theoretical calculation. The relationship between thickness, doping concentration, work function and efficiency is analyzed. It is suggested that the nickel oxide film can block electrons from entering hole transport layer (HTL) to recombining with holes so that reducing carriers recombination and improving solar cell performance in the PSC with the structure of TiO₂/CH₃NH₃PbI₃/NiO/Si.