Photovoltaic performance of lead-free MASnI3-based perovskite solar cells with kesterite hole transport materials

The rapid progress of lead-free perovskites has drawn attention as a viable alternative for next-generation photovoltaics. Yet, material degradation and inefficient charge transport, which reduce recombination loss, remain major challenges. In this work, the SCAPS-1D simulation was used in the device structure FTO/TiO2/MASnI3/HTL/Au to analyze the performance of lead-free perovskite solar cells with three different kesterite hole transport materials (HTLs), namely, CBTS, CFTS, and CZTS. The CBTS among all three HTLs demonstrated the best performance in the MASnI3-based solar cells. Device structure was optimized by parametric variation of the absorber layer’s thickness, bulk defect density, electron affinity, dielectric constant, ETL/absorber layer and absorber layer/HTL interfacial defect density, working point temperature, and the effective densities of states of the conduction band and valence band. The best performance with a power conversion efficiency of 25.86% and a short circuit current density (JSC) of 30.24 mA/cm2 has been recorded in the device structure with an absorber layer thickness of 600 nm and a bulk defect density of 1014 cm−3. The simulated results reveal the potential of MASnI3 in highly efficient, eco-friendly solar cells.