Towards printed perovskite solar cells with cuprous oxide hole transporting layers: a theoretical design

Solution-processed p-type metal oxide materials have shown great promise in improving the stability of perovskite-based solar cells and offering the feasibility for a low cost printing fabrication process. Herein, we performed a device modeling study on planar perovskite solar cells with cuprous oxide (Cu2O) hole transporting layers (HTLs) by using a solar cell simulation program, wxAMPS. The performance of a Cu2O/perovskite solar cell was correlated to the material properties of the Cu2O HTL, such as thickness, carrier mobility, mid-gap defect, and doping concentrations. The effect of interfacial defect densities on the solar cell performance was also investigated. Our simulation indicates that, with an optimized Cu2O HTL, high performance perovskite solar cells with efficiencies above 13% could be achieved, which shows the potential of using Cu2O as an alternative HTL over other inorganic materials, such as NiOx and MoOx. This study provides theoretical guidance for developing perovskite solar cells with inorganic hole transporting materials via a printing process.