Optical and Quantum Electronics (2019) 51:91

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-019-1802-3

Simulation analysis of graphene contacted perovskite solar

cells using SCAPS‑1D

Aniseh Kafi Kang1 · M. Hossein Zandi1 · Nima E. Gorji2

Received: 24 April 2018 / Accepted: 27 February 2019

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Abstract
To understand what cause the low performance in a perovskite cell with graphene back
contact, we have performed simulations of device characteristics using SCAPs-1D simula-
tion platform. The impact of increasing defect concentration at the interface of perovskite/
graphene (RGO) and also graphene thickness on the current density, voltage, fill factor, and
conversion efficiency of the cell was investigated. We converted the graphene nanostruc-
ture to a planar p-type layer at the top side of the cell as a hole transporting layer in order to
enable to insert it into the SCAPS simulation platform. The simulation analysis were com-
pared to the experimental data reported in literature. The voltage and fill factor of the simu-
lation and experiments are almost the same but the current density is showing to be higher
in simulation analysis which reminds a imperfect thickness and absorption by the graphene
layer. Graphene was also compared to Spiro-MeOTAD showing to be a promising materi-
als to act as both hole transporting layer and back contact. The experimental process could
be improved by looking at our results as a method to fabricate a high performance cell with
graphene electrode. It is shown that such a hybrid structure suffers from imperfect interface
at graphene and perovskite junction where a high concentration of trap density impedes the
carrier collection.

Keywords  Perovskite · Graphene · Solar cell · SCAPS-1D · Simulations

1 Introduction

Graphene has been a very attracting nanostructure for solar cell applications. It has been
introduced into architecture of various solar cells including the emerging perovskite hybrid
organic inorganic devices. Very recently, Iqbal et  al. (2018) have presented a novel gra-
phene-based transparent electrodes for perovskite cells where graphene oxide/SnO2 was
used as the front contact on ITO and a open-circuit voltage ( Voc ) of 870 mV was obtained.
On the other hand, quantum dot/graphene hybrids were used to enhance the interface

* Nima E. Gorji
nimaegorji@tdtu.edu.vn
1
Department of Physics, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
2
Optoelectronics Research Group, Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ton Duc
Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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quality of CH3 NH3 PbI3 perovskite cell with an Efficiency of over 20% (Najafi et al. 2018).
The MnO2 quantum dot and reduced graphene oxide hybrid was used as a promising hole
transporting layer. Graphene derivations were also used for improving the stability of per-
ovskite cells since these efficient cells still suffer from instability at moisture, ion elec-
tromigration, UV and heat decomposition. Chowdhury et al. (2018) have used a reduced
graphene oxide (r-GO)/CuSCN as an efficient bilayer hole transport layer (HTL) for low
temperature processed inverted planar perovskite cells. This cell retained over 90% of its
initial efficiency after 100 h light soaking under continuous AM1.5 illumination. Kakave-
lakis et al. (2018) have reported the possibility of commercializing the graphene contacted
perovskite cells as the instability is diminishing by optimizing the deficits of such devices.
This was proven in a recent review by Milic et al. (2018) on new approaches proposed for
the perovskite cells using reduced graphene oxide as a stabilizing agent. We have been
working on simulation analysis of the performance and stability of graphene and nanotube
contacted thin film solar cells (CdTe, CIGS, CZTS, perovskites) in the past, and, this paper,
is a stream of the previous publications (Kuhn and Gorji 2016; Houshmand et al. 2016).
Here, we have investigated the possibility of inserting graphene nanostructure in the
structure if perovskite solar cells as a hole transporting and back contact layer. The experi-
mental proof of such as devices has been already reported in the literature (Yang et  al.
2014; Lang et al. 2015). We used solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS) a 1D simula-
tion platform to simulate the device characteristics and compared it to the experimentally
reported device metrics.

2 Simulation analysis and results

We considered the device characteristics of a reduced graphene oxide (RGO) contacted

perovskite based solar cell with the schematic shown in Fig. 1. The experimental proof of
the actual device has been presented in Palma et al. (2016) and the authors have reported
the device characteristics, device metrics, and the absorption rate of the layers under
1.5AM and 1 sun.
The device structure was established in SCAPS-1D platform and the device param-
eters were taken from Minemoto and Murata (2014) since the reference paper has not
given the whole device characteristics. However, we have inserted reasonable values to
the parameters of the device layers in order to re-simulate the current–voltage charac-
teristics of the cell as much as possible. Furthermore, we have investigated the impact
of increased/decreased trap density at the interface, across the perovskite layer, RGO
thickness (equivalent to number of layers) on device metrics, Fill factor (FF), short-
circuit current density ( Jsc ), open-circuit voltage ( Voc ), efficiency ( 𝜂 ). The importance
of such a hybrid device is that the graphene layer will significantly improve the carrier
collection at the top electrode or reduce the device degradation by reducing the ion elec-
tromigration from the metallic electrode to the perovskite layer which causes electrical
shunting. In addition, device’s thermal stability increases because of accelerated heat
dissipation from the graphene layer to the environment and reducing the generated heat
inside the cell during real operation. Nevertheless, graphene has a low conduction at lat-
eral direction and thus it must be doped with metallic ions. Also, the very important is
that the interface of graphene with semiconductor planar layer (e.g. perovskite) must be
delicately engineered as otherwise a huge lattice mismatch will increase the recombina-
tion rate. The band diagram of the cell structure has been drawn in Fig. 2. The graphene

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Fig. 1  a Schematic of a the

considered perovskite solar cell
with graphene top contact. The
cell structure was experimentally
realized in Palma et al. (2016).
b The energy potential of every
layer with respect to the vacuum
level on topppest

Fig. 2  The band diagram of the

cell with graphene contact drawn
in SCAPS-1D

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layer was taken as a planar structure as was suggested in several papers. We take RGO
as a planar layer with p-type doping and with a thin thickness of up to 30  nm (Palma
et al. 2016; Batmunkh et al. 2016).
The device characteristics of the cell was simulated in SCAPS-1D and has been plot-
ted in Fig.  3 and compared to the experimental results. We found comparable results
by simulations and designing the cell architecture in SCAPS-1D noting that RGO layer
was replaced with a p-type layer with high doping density and an ultrathin thickness.
Both Voc and FF are comparable for the experimental and simulation analysis. However,
the Jsc is quite higher (8.95 mA/cm2 vs. 15.43 mA/cm2) than the experimental value.
We have inserted a proper absorption coefficient for the graphene planar structure in
the SCAPS-1D. The simulated current-density is almost twice the experimental value.
Note that in practice, Graphene is a transparent network of single atoms and is 90%
transparent to a wide range of wavelengths. We took graphene as a planar layer with 30
nm thickness and that could be the reason for such higher current density. Nevertheless,
about 9 mA/cm2 is low for a perovskite solar cell compared to many same efficient cells.
The fact that we can control the thickness of the graphene layer by up to 7 nm and
also dope it with Au layer gives us the idea to consider the graphene thickness impact
on device parameters. Note that in SCAPS-1D we considered that graphene can be
taken as a planar p-type layer in the simulations with opto-electronics properties simi-
lar to an ultra-thin metallic layer or p-type doped layer. The device parameters show a
significant change by increased graphene thickness. Figure 4 shows the variation of Voc ,
Jsc , FF, and 𝜂 by graphene thickness increase. Voc shows an increase and then saturation
to around 1 V for dgr >30 nm. This could be due to a better charge collection and a bet-
ter interface at the perovskite and graphene layer since the interaction and match of the
lattice at the interface will improve by increasing the number of atomic orbitals of gra-
phene layers. However, the fill factor is reducing all the time which is expected since the
more number of graphene results in higher lateral resistance in the junction. The Jsc has
shown a little odd behavior at the beginning but then is increasing for over dgr >30 nm.
This might be because we have inserted graphene as a planar layer with a bandgap in the
cell structure and increasing the thickness of this layer will result in a higher absorption
rate. Finally, the efficiency is reducing by dgr and getting constant at around 9% for dgr >
30 nm. This reduction mainly follows the reducing brand of the fill factor.

Fig. 3  The current–voltage
characteristics of the perovs-
kite solar cells with graphene
contact drawn in SCAPS-1D and
re-simulated device param-
eters. Comparable metrics were
resulted out of simulations with
few discrepancies which will
be investigated as the interface
mismatch or defect densities in
perovskite layer

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Fig. 4  The impact of increased graphene layer thickness on the current–voltage characteristics of the per-
ovskite solar cell with graphene contact drawn in SCAPS-1D. The 30  nm RGO thickness should be the
optimum thickness for this structure

We also got a step forward to consider the impact of increased defect density at the
interface of graphene/perovskite layers on the cell metrics as shown in Fig. 5. The inter-
face defect or trap density can increase for number of reasons from fabrication pro-
cess to degradation and electro-migration of ions (Wang et  al. 2015; Lee et  al. 2016).
SCAPS-1D allows increasing the defect density from 1013 to 1020 cm−3 and running for
every density will give the updated value of the metrics. We found this important to
consider since many scientists are unsure about the quality of interface of the graphene
and planar semiconductors. In fact, increasing the Nt shows a degradation of all met-
rics. Voc reduces significantly for Nt > 1017 cm−3 and becomes constant at around 0.7 V.
Clearly, Voc is inversely related to the recombination current and it will reduce if the
interface recombination raises. On the other hand, Jsc is reducing for Nt > 1015 cm−3
which could be due to incomplete carrier collection at defective interface. The FF is
slowly reducing and then shows to become linearly constant or gives some odd peaks in
continue. Finally, also the efficiency is reducing with a slow slope as expected.
For a better understanding on the role of RGO at the top contact, we simulated the
current–voltage characteristics of the perovskite cell where RGO is replaced with Sprio-
MeOTAD. This was made possible as we inserted the RGO layer as a planar layer in
SCAPS-1D. The simulation results shown in Fig. 6 recommends that graphene can be a
reasonable replacement for conventional Spiro hole transporting layer in perovskite cells
despite a slightly lower fill factor. Many publications have suggested that a properly
doped-graphene layer can act as both hole transporting and back contact in a perovskite

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Fig. 5  The impact of defect density on the current–voltage characteristics of perovskite solar cell with gra-
phene contact simulated in SCAPS-1D

Fig. 6  Comparing the cur-

rent–voltage characteristics of
perovskite cell with graphene
(RGO) and conventional Spiro-
MeOTAD hole transporting
layer. Almost a comparable result
was obtained suggested graphene
can be desirable contacting layer

solar cell. Hole transporting layers such as Sprio-MeOTAD are additional layers in the
cell structure which could also increase the recombination at their interfaces.
A table of the simulation results has been presented in Table 1. The simulations were
run in SCAPS-1D by inserting both Spiro-MeOTAD properties and RGO properties. There
is a good agreement between the experiments and simulations for Spiro-MeOTAD where
all the current, voltage, fill factor and conversion efficiency are almost similar. However,

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Simulation analysis of graphene contacted perovskite solar… Page 7 of 9  91

Table 1  Compared results of HTM Voc Jsc FF PCE

experimental and our simulation
analysis
Spiro (experiment) 1.024 15.7 68.78 11.06
Spiro (simulation) 1.023 15.60 71.19 11.38
RGO (experiment) 0.91 8.95 59.78 4.87
RGO (simulation) 0.99 15.15 60.28 9.15

when we insert RGO planar layer in SCAPS, we get a higher current density than the
experimental report which is most probably due to a thin thickness and a better photo-
absorption. There was no way to get a fit for this as we tried and thus we believe the higher
absorption of the experimentally proven cell is due to other mechanisms which were not
included in our SCAPS simulations, for example, reflection at the back contact or multiple
reflections from the interfaces. This examination again introduces graphene as a promising
materials for simplifying the architecture of perovskite solar cells by replacing graphene as
both hole transporting and contact electrode (Jang et al. 2019; Basith et al. 2018).
We have also drawn the recombination profile of the two cells with graphene and Sprio-
MeOTAD layers in order to see which interface has more recombination at perovskite junc-
tion (Fig. 7). Clearly we see that the perovskite/graphene junction has a lesser recombina-
tion and the recombination in the graphene layer is also smaller.
Figure 8 shows the recombination profile at the junction of perovskite/graphene. We see
that increasing the defect at this junction can instead raise the recombination rate over an
order of magnitude. The impact of defect density on the recombination rate at the interface
of perovskite/graphene, in light of the Shockley–Read–Hall model are contemplated. When
defect density is ­1015 ­cm−3, the recombination rate is very low as but as it raises towards
­1018 ­cm−3, the recombination rate becomes dominant which degrades the cell performance.
This is also in agreement with Fig.  5 as degradation observed in cell metrics is due to
increased recombination rate in perovskite/graphene due to defect increment at this junc-
tion (Ansari et al. 2019).

Fig. 7  Comparing the recombi-

nation rate profile of graphene
and Spiro-MeOTAD hole trans-
porting layers added to the top of
the perovskite cell. A comparable
and less recombination rate is
observed at the interface of per-
ovskite/graphene junction

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 91   Page 8 of 9 A. K. Kang et al.

Fig. 8  Recombination rate versus

the defect density increment
at the junction of perovskite/
graphene. The high peak shows
the sensitivity of this junction to
defect density

3 Conclusion

We presented the simulation analysis of the device characteristics of a graphene con-

tacted perovskite solar cell where graphene layer in form of RGO is inserted on top
electrode and also acts as hole transporting layer. Our simulation analysis has resulted
in comparable current, voltage, fill factor and conversion efficiency. We have shown that
graphene can be a reasonable replacement for Spiro-MeOTAD conventional hole trans-
porting layer. However a little lower fill factor can be optimized with a proper doping
with metallic ions. In fact, graphene can act as both hole transporting layer and top elec-
trode in perovskite layers. We considered the impact of defect density at perovskite/gra-
phene layer where charge collection occurs. The impact of increased defect density at
this junction is significant as that is where the charge collection is completed. All met-
rics degraded by defect increment at this interface as expected. The rate of reduction is
sudden at Nt = 1015 cm−3 and the efficiency is reducing with a slow slope. Moreover, we
considered the graphene thickness and it’s impact on device metrics. An optimum thick-
ness seems to be 30 nm for which Voc and Jsc increase. It seems that graphene thickness
will result in low FF and 𝜂 which is not odd since lateral graphne resistance is increasing
for thicker layers. Our simulations could spot the critical parameters in optimizing such
a hybrid device made of perovskite and graphene nanostructurs and can be extended to
other similar devices having nanotubes or quantum dots in their architecture.

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