Plasmon Enhanced Semitransparent Planar Perovskite Solar Cells with Copper Nanocubes: FDTD Study

Ascribed to explore inexpensive alternative to commonly used noble metals like silver (Ag), Plasmon Copper (Cu) Nanocube (NC) arrays are introduced at the back contact of a typical inverted planar perovskite ( CH
₃
NH
₃
PbBrxI
_3-x
, x = 0 to 1) solar cell structures compatible for semitransparency and the optical properties of the cells are studied using finite difference time-domain (FDTD) analysis. The light absorption enhancement and the visual transparency are investigated for a wide range of NC sizes (40- 100nm) as well as different absorber layer thickness (in the range of 100-300nm) with a variety of Br-compositions in the perovskite layer. In addition, detailed study of localized field enhancement and scattering of the NCs are performed. It is found that, by tuning proper NC size and absorber thickness along with its Br-composition, optimization in absorption enhancement and transparency can be achieved for Cu plasmon NCs, in such a level which is very much comparable with Ag plasmon NCs. Thus, copper proves as a viable but more economical alternative to the noble metals in plasmon enhanced semitransparent perovskite solar cells in terms of optical performance.