journal article·2026-04-10Open access

Impact of Ultrathin Electron-Selective Contacts on Perovskite–Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

Gaosheng Huang, Nan Sun, Niklas Scheer, Samah Akel, Qing Yang, Benjamin Klingebiel, Karsten Bittkau, Andreas Lambertz, Rüdiger-A. Eichel, Florian Hausen, Thomas Kirchartz, Uwe Rau, Kaining Ding

ACS Energy Letters· Volume 11· Issue 4

Abstract

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide During the development of perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells, the impact of transport layers of perovskite top cells on the short-circuit current density ( J SC ) has rarely been considered. Here, we report ultrathin electron-selective contacts as new architectures of electron transport layers (ETLs) by decreasing the C 60 thickness to 1 nm, where the carrier collection efficiency is proven to be independent of C 60 thickness with tin oxide as a buffer layer. Benefiting from the lowest C 60 parasitic absorption, the J SC in the tandem device with ultrathin C 60 is enhanced by 0.24 mA/cm 2 . Moreover, to recover the damage from atomic layer deposition on uncovered perovskite surface, we use poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as a protective layer. Combining ultrathin C 60 and PMMA protective layer, an efficiency of 31.70% is finally achieved in tandem solar cells. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of ultrathin ETLs or ETL-free designs for perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Perovskite Materials and Applications · Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies · Chemical and Physical Properties of Materials

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

IMD-3 Photovoltaics, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Wilhelm-Johnen Straße, 52425 Jülich, Germany

Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA-Energy) and Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, RWTH Aachen University, Schinkelstr. 2, 52062 Aachen, Germany

Faculty of Engineering and CENIDE, University of Duisburg-Essen, Carl-Benz-Str. 199, 47057 Duisburg, Germany

IET-1, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Wilhelm-Johnen Straße, 52425 Jülich, Germany

Institute of Physical Chemistry

RWTH Aachen University

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Funding

Bundesministerium f?r Wirtschaft und Technologie · Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft · China Scholarship Council

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