SEALPTSC Strain and Photonic Engineering Toward Stable, Efficient, and Large-scale All-perovskite Triple-junction Solar Cells

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy, Photovoltaics)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr hjs Snaith
Oxford Physics
University of Oxford

Standard

EPSRC

01 September 2023

31 August 2025

24 months

£200,512

Optics; photonics & lasers

South East

UKRI MSCA

Dr hjs Snaith, Oxford Physics, University of Oxford

Solar energy is central to future energy supply due to its vast abundance and low-carbon footprint. Compared to established technologies such as crystalline silicon, emerging perovskite semiconductors offer an avenue to surpass the efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells (33%) with low cost and potential for mass production. Triple-junction solar cells pairing cascaded wide-, mid-, and narrow-bandgap perovskite absorbers could deliver potential performance above 36%. Pushing efficiencies beyond the limit relies on minimizing the energetic losses of each sub-cell and reducing the optical constraints of tandem structures. Furthermore, operational stability and upscalable fabrication of perovskites must be addressed to exploit their full potential.This project aims to develop scalable all-perovskite triple-junction solar cells with efficiency beyond 30% and stability for more than 1000 hours. I will outline a multidisciplinary approach to improving the stability and performance of wide-bandgap perovskites, developing low optical loss tandem structures, and exploring large-area fabrication techniques for triple-junction solar cells. Specifically, a multimodal characterization procedure will be introduced to uncover the dynamic formation and nanoscopic strain of solution-processed wide-bandgap perovskite films. The knowledge will enable a controllable growth of perovskite thin films, leading to the fabrication of solar cells with good photostability and low energetic losses at a wide bandgap. In parallel, novel nanophotonic structures will be developed to enhance the near-infrared photon response of the narrow-bandgap sub-cell. Combining these strategies, I will fabricate triple-junction solar cells with efficiency beyond 30%. Eventually, these procedures will be adopted to produce all-perovskite triple-junction solar modules, where scalable deposition techniques will be used to process all the charge transport layers, perovskite absorbers, and electrodes

27/09/23