Mie-resonant mesoporous electron transport layer for highly efficient perovskite solar cells

All-dielectric nanophotonics is a powerful tool for improvement of thin-film optoelectronic devices because of low optical losses, strong light localization, and chemical robustness against such materials as halide perovskites. However, large-scale and low-cost approaches to create functional nanostructures are still not developed. In our work, we show a novel method to create mesoporous electron transport layer based on optically resonant silicon nanoparticles incorporated into TiO2 paste to be applied for perovskite (MAPbI3) solar cell. The inclusion of Mie-resonant silicon nanoparticles helps to improve light absorption by a perovskite layer without reduction of the active material. The management of Si nanoantennas concentration provides to reach a power conversion efficiency higher than 21% by increasing all main device parameters. Our multi-physical theoretical simulations of the solar cells with the resonant silicon nanoparticles provide physical understanding on the mechanisms of the device improvement as well as help to optimize the silicon nanoparticles concentration.