Performance analysis of SnS solar cell with a hole transport layer based on experimentally extracted device parameters

Tin sulfide is considered as a promising semiconducting material for heterojunction solar cells in photovoltaic industry due to its suitable electrical and optical characteristics. Herein, we report a novel heterojunction tin sulfide (SnS)-based thin-film solar cell introducing cuprous oxide (Cu2O) as hole transport layer (HTL). Photovoltaic performances of the designed SnS solar device are evaluated by one-dimensional Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS-1D) program. The device outputs are assessed by varying thickness, carrier concentration, and defect density for the absorber. In addition, the thickness and doping density of HTL, defects at HTL/SnS and SnS/buffer interfaces, operative temperature, and work function of back contact are altered to evaluate the solar cell characteristics. Moreover, several HTLs including Cu2O, copper iodide (CuI), and nickel oxide (NiOx) are inspected to realize the outputs of suggested SnS solar device. The physical key parameters of the designed solar cell have been optimized to achieve excellent power conversion efficiency. The optimal thickness of the SnS absorber is found to be 1.0 µm for designing a highly efficient PV device. The conversion efficiency of 4.225% for the experimentally developed SnS-based thin-film solar structure without HTL is verified numerically. The efficiency of 29.68% with Voc = 1.01 V, Jsc = 34.19 mA/cm2, and FF = 85.74% is obtained numerically employing device parameters optimized for the proposed SnS solar cell with Cu2O HTL. These results suggest that the anticipated less-toxic Cu2O can be employed as a promising HTL to develop environmental friendly, low-cost, and highly efficient SnS thin-film heterojunction solar cell. •Photovoltaic performances of SnS-based solar cell with Cu2O HTL have been evaluated by SCAPS-1D.•A comparative study on performances between conventional and proposed SnS solar cells is made.•Integration of Cu2O HTL into typical SnS PV cell minimizes carrier recombination at back surface, thus enhance PV outputs.•Improved efficiency of 29.68% with Voc of 1.01 V, Jsc of 34.19 mA/cm2, and FF of 85.74% is achieved for proposed SnS solar cell.