Perovskite/germanium tandem: A potential high efficiency thin film solar cell design

Perovskite absorbs from ultraviolet (UV) to ∼800 nm, and germanium covers to 1800 nm, the combination shows excellent match in terms of solar spectrum-splitting. The optical properties of CH3NH3PbI3−xClx perovskite and single-crystalline germanium (c-Ge) tandem solar cell on a special designed substrate with triangular grating are analyzed and discussed. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) approach is used to solve the Maxwell's equations in three dimensions rigorously. By optimizing the absorption layer thickness, the current match between the top and the bottom component cells is achieved using very thin films as thin as 1500 nm. By controlling the thickness of perovskite and c-Ge to 750 nm each, high short circuit current density (Jsc) of the tandem solar cell is achieved to as high as 23.70 mA/cm2. The perovskite/c-Ge tandem thin film cell design is capable of a potential efficiency 24.88% based on the simulation.