Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell: surface recombination analysis

Tandem devices combining perovskite and silicon solar cells are promising candidates to achieve power conversion efficiencies above 30% at reasonable costs. However, it is rarely reported about the effect of surface recombination on tandem solar cells. In this paper, we analyze the influence of surface recombination on the performance of tandem cells. Simulations show surface recombination can reduce the cell’s open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current (Jsc), and efficiency. The efficiency of the tandem cell decreases with the increase of the surface recombination rate on the sub cells. The maximum efficiency of the tandem cell without surface recombination is 25.81%. When the recombination velocity of the silicon sub cell increases from 0 to 105 cm/s, the overall efficiency decreases to 13.96%. When the same surface recombination velocity is added to perovskite sub cell, the overall efficiency is 13.89%. When both the surface recombination velocity of perovskite and silicon are 105 cm/s, the efficiency of the tandem cell decreases to 13.42%. Therefore, the performances of the tandem cell are similar in the cases of single sub cell with surface recombination and both sub cells with surface recombination.