Monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with >29% efficiency

Efficiency from hole-selective contacts

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells must stabilize a perovskite material with a wide bandgap and also maintain efficient charge carrier transport. Al-Ashouri et al. stabilized a perovskite with a 1.68–electron volt bandgap with a self-assembled monolayer that acted as an efficient hole-selective contact that minimizes nonradiative carrier recombination. In air without encapsulation, a tandem silicon cell retained 95% of its initial power conversion efficiency of 29% after 300 hours of operation.

Science, this issue p. 1300

Abstract

Tandem solar cells that pair silicon with a metal halide perovskite are a promising option for surpassing the single-cell efficiency limit. We report a monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem with a certified power conversion efficiency of 29.15%. The perovskite absorber, with a bandgap of 1.68 electron volts, remained phase-stable under illumination through a combination of fast hole extraction and minimized nonradiative recombination at the hole-selective interface. These features were made possible by a self-assembled, methyl-substituted carbazole monolayer as the hole-selective layer in the perovskite cell. The accelerated hole extraction was linked to a low ideality factor of 1.26 and single-junction fill factors of up to 84%, while enabling a tandem open-circuit voltage of as high as 1.92 volts. In air, without encapsulation, a tandem retained 95% of its initial efficiency after 300 hours of operation.