Near fundamental limit performance of inverted perovskite solar cells with Anti-Reflective coating integration

The reported power conversion efficiency (PCE) of single-junction perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has increased rapidly to over 26 %. Promoting the PSC’s device performance to approach its fundamental efficiency limit of over 30 % requires mitigating optical and recombination losses. In this work, we examine the performance of MAPbI₃-based inverted p-i-n PSCs with the aid of a numerical device simulator (OghmaNano version 8.0.038). The simulator considers the thickness and charge carrier mobilities of the device’s photoactive layer and band-to-band recombination of the PSC devices. We reveal that maximum efficiency as high as 28.4 % can be expected for optimized single-junction MAPbI₃-based PSC with an active layer thickness of 950 nm, charge carrier mobility of 71 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹ and a recombination rate constant <1 × 10⁻¹¹ cm³s⁻¹. However, the simulated efficiency is still below the fundamental efficiency limit as we assume a flat device that allows optical loss from reflection. Therefore, we introduce single and double layers of anti-reflective coatings (SL-ARC and DL-ARC) to enhance the PV performance further. It was found that the inclusion of PMMA-based SL-ARC with a thickness of 70 nm could push the PCE values up to 29.7 %. By inserting another layer of ARC with a lower refractive index after the PMMA layer, we could further push the PCE. As a result, the PMMA/PDMS DL-ARC −based PSCs are predicted to have a PCE of 30.25 %. Our work showcases guidelines for designing inverted perovskite solar cells with efficiency near its fundamental limit.