Effectively Transparent Superstrates for Perovskite Solar Cells

We are developing effectively transparent superstrates for perovskite solar cells. These superstrates incorporate triangular-shaped grid fingers with thin transparent conductors, which mitigate shading losses associated with conventional grid fingers and/or thick TCO layers. We have investigated various types of polymers for use as superstrates in both rigid (glass-backed) and flexible applications. We have developed an electroplating process to fabricate the triangular gridlines, which improves their conductivity vs. prior silver
ink printing approaches. We will present a summary of perovskite solar cells that were fabricated on these effectively transparent superstrates, including a discussion of their photovoltaic efficiency, spectral response, and LBIC mapping. The results demonstrate that effectively transparent superstrates enable an improvement in the short-circuit current density and fill factor for large-area perovskite solar cells.
Perovskite solar cells are of great interest due to their potential for low cost and high performance. One of the challenges to attaining high photovoltaic conversion efficiency, particularly for large-area cells, is the tradeoff between the optical and electrical performance of the top contact. Because perovskite absorbers and selective electrode materials provide very little lateral conductivity for current collection, a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) such as indium tin oxide (ITO) must be used for the front contact. However, TCOs offer a tradeoff between transparency and conductivity, resulting in a compromise between short-circuit current density (due to optical losses) and fill factor (due to resistive
losses) for solar cells. A solution is to increase the density of the grid fingers such that thinner TCOs can be used; however, this increases the shading losses.
Recently, a method to produce effectively transparent front contact grids has been described (Adv. Optical Mater. 4 (10), 1470-1474 (2016); Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) IEEE 43rd, 3612-3615, (2016); Sustainable Energy and Fuels, 1 (3), 593-598, (2017)). This approach yields a relatively dense array of high-aspect-ratio, triangular-shaped front contact fingers, in which light striking the metal is reflected towards the cell. Our current work pertains to the application of this technology to perovskite solar cells.