Strategies for high performance perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells: Effects of bandgap engineering, solar concentration and device temperature

Concentrating photovoltaic systems combined with tandem solar cells have been successfully investigated to generate high power conversion efficiencies. Nevertheless, this attractive concept has not yet been sufficiently implemented for solar cells based on perovskite. In this paper, we assess the feasibility of utilizing perovskite semiconductor with varied bandgap for tandem concentrator solar cell applications in combination with traditional crystalline silicon. We evaluate the device performance of tandem perovskite concentrator solar cell (TPCSC) under different sunlight concentrations. We derive the temperature sensitivity of our proposed TPCSC under various operating conditions. In this context, we developed a combined opto-electronic model to optimize TPCSC and reach the highest possible power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Our simulation findings highlight that appropriate bandgap engineering of formamidinium-based mixed-halide perovskite top cell lead to higher PCE over 30% for tandem perovskite/c-Si solar cell. Of critical importance, under a wide range of solar concentrations, perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cell can exhibit appreciably higher PCE, and achieves a peak efficiency of 34.62% under 70 Suns, as compared to 30.52% under 1 Sun. Interestingly, the temperature sensitivity of TPCSC PCE decreases with increasing concentrated solar irradiances. Thus, our study shows that concentrating photovoltaic can be the possible new development direction for tandem perovskite/c-Si solar cell to achieve greater efficiencies under various conditions. •A combined opto-electronic model of 2T TPCSC is built.•With a perovskite bandgap of 1.67 eV, a PCE of 30.52% has been reported for 2T tandem PSC/c-Si cell.•2T tandem PSC/c-Si cell can displays appreciably higher PCE under a wide range of solar concentrations.•Temperature sensitivities on the overall performance of device are investigated.•Temperature sensitivity of PCE of TPCSC decreases with increasing concentrated sunlight.