Dielectric Junction: Electrostatic Design for Charge Carrier Collection in Solar Cells

Conventional solar cells typically use doping of the involved semiconducting layers and work function differences between highly conductive contacts for the electrostatic design and the charge selectivity of the junction. In some halide perovskite solar cells, however, substantial variations in the permittivity of different organic and inorganic semiconducting layers strongly affect the electrostatic potential and thereby indirectly also the carrier concentrations, recombination rates, and eventually efficiencies of the device. Here, numerical simulations are used to study the implications of electrostatics on device performance for classical p-n junctions and p-i-n junctions, and for device geometries as observed in perovskite photovoltaics, where high-permittivity absorber layers are surrounded by low-permittivity and often also low-conductivity charge transport layers. The key principle of device design in materials with sufficiently high mobilities that are still dominated by defect-assisted recombination is the minimization of volume with similar densities of electrons and holes. In classical solar cells this is achieved by doping. For perovskites, the concept of a dielectric junction is proposed by the selection of charge transport layers with adapted permittivity if doping is not sufficient.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of electrostatics on device performance for classical solar cells and perovskite solar cells through numerical simulations. It emphasizes the importance of permittivity variations on device efficiency and proposes the principle of optimizing device design by minimizing volume and selecting charge transport layers with adapted permittivity.