An n-ZnO/i-MoS₂/p-Si heterojunction solar cell with an enhanced photoswitching response

An ZnO nanostructure and the MoS₂ switching mechanism in a heterostructure are applied in this work to improve the photoconversion efficiency of a solar cell. The carrier transport of MoS₂ at the MoS₂/Si interface generates more electron–hole pairs. The photoswitching performance of the MoS₂ active layer with a thickness of 30 nm is increased by the effective light trapping of the ZnO nanostructure, achieving a short-circuit current density of 40.99 mA cm⁻² based on a surface recombination velocity of 0.2165 × 10⁵ m s⁻¹ for electrons and 0.1901 × 10⁵ m s⁻¹ for holes. The electron and hole mobility are found to be 100 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and 150 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively. The Joule and Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) heating rates are calculating using the steady-state method, yielding values on the magnitude of 10¹³ and 10¹² W m⁻³, respectively. The thermal stability is improved because of the photoswitching characteristics of the MoS₂ with electron and hole lifetimes of 0.1 ns and the reduced SRH and Joule heating rates. Such combined use of both ZnO and MoS₂ nanostructures results in a photoconversion efficiency of 27.73%.