High-performance perovskite/silicon heterojunction solar cells enabled by industrially compatible postannealing

In recent years, developing dopant-free carrier-selective contacts, instead of heavily doped Si layer (either externally or internally), for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells have attracted considerable interests with the aim to reduce parasitic light absorption and fabrication cost. However, the stability still remains a big challenge for dopant-free contacts, especially when thermal treatment is involved, which limits their industrial adoption. In this study, a perovskite material ZnTiO3 combining with an ultrathin (similar to 1 nm) SiO2 film and Al layer is used as an electron-selective contact, forming an isotype heterojunction with n-type c-Si. The perovskite/c-Si heterojunction solar cells exhibit a performance-enhanced effect by postmetallization annealing when the annealing temperature is 200-350 degrees C. Thanks to the postannealing treatment, an impressive efficiency of 22.0% has been demonstrated, which is 3.5% in absolute value higher than that of the as-fabricated solar cell. A detailed material and device characterization reveal that postannealing leads to the diffusion of Al into ZnTiO3 film, thus doping the film and reducing its work function. Besides, the coverage of SiO2 is also improved. Both these two factors contribute to the enhanced passivation effect and electron selectivity of the ZnTiO3-based contact and hence improve the cell performance.

Automated summary

Developing dopant-free carrier-selective contacts for c-Si solar cells has attracted attention in recent years. In this study, a perovskite material, ZnTiO3, combined with an ultrathin SiO2 film and Al layer, is used as an electron-selective contact. Postmetallization annealing at 200-350 degrees C improves the efficiency of the perovskite/c-Si heterojunction solar cells by 3.5%. The annealing treatment leads to Al diffusion into the ZnTiO3 film, doping the film and reducing its work function, as well as improving the coverage of SiO2.