Effect of perovskite absorber thickness and working temperature on the hematite-based ETL in PSCs

¹ University of North Texas, Department of Data Analytics & Statistics, Denton, USA
² Arya Model Senior Secondary School, Department of Physics, Phagwara, Punjab, India
³ DAV University, Department of Physics, Jalandhar, Punjab, India
⁴ Department of Physics, Bahra Research Innovation & Knowledge Cluster, University School of Sciences, Rayat Bahra University, Greater Mohali, Punjab, 140103, India

^* Corresponding author: aktangra@gmail.com

Published online: 7 January 2026

Abstract

A key factor in increasing the efficiency of perovskite solar cell (PCSs) is optimizing the thickness of the absorber and the operating temperature. In order to examine the impact of these factors, a planar n-i-p PSCs with the configuration FTO/α-Fe₂O₃/MAPbI₃/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au was simulated using SCAPS-1D. The results indicate that the charge carrier generation and transportation are strongly governed by the thickness of MAPbI3 absorber layer. When tune to 600 nm thickness, the device has a Jsc of 22.1 mA/cm², an Voc of 1.06 V, a FF of 77.4 %, and an overall PCE of 18.3 %. When layers are too thin (<300 nm), they limit the photon absorption, which lower the Jsc. When layers are too thick (>800nm), they cause recombination losses that lower the FF. Variation in the temperature also affect how well the device works in different temperature conditions. For example, raising form 300 K to 350 K lowers the Voc and PCE because of non-radiative recombination happens more often. These finding highlight that careful control of absorber thickness coupled with thermal stability of the α-Fe2O3 ETL is crucial for achieving stable and high-efficiency PSCs.