Among new flexible transparent conductive electrode (TCE) candidates, ultrathin Ag film (UTAF) is attractive for its extremely low resistance and relatively high transparency. However, the performances of UTAF based TCEs critically depend on the threshold thickness for growth of continuous Ag films and the film morphologies. Here, we demonstrate that these two parameters could be strongly altered through the modulation of substrate surface energy. By minimizing the surface energy difference between the Ag film and substrate, a 9 nm UTAF with a sheet resistance down to 6.9 Ω sq−1 can be obtained using an electron-beam evaporation process. The resultant UTAF is completely continuous and exhibits smoother morphologies and smaller optical absorbances in comparison to the counterpart of granular-type Ag film at the same thickness without surface modulation. Template-stripping procedure is further developed to transfer the UTAFs to flexible polymer matrixes and construct Al2O3/Ag/MoOx (AAM) electrodes with excellent surface morphology as well as optical and electronic characteristics, including a root-mean-square roughness below 0.21 nm, a transparency up to 93.85% at 550 nm and a sheet resistance as low as 7.39 Ω sq−1. These AAM based electrodes also show superiority in mechanical robustness, thermal oxidation stability and shape memory property.

For semi-transparent perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the bombardment during the deposition of transparent conductive oxide can inevitably damage the underlying soft materials, thereby inducing a high density of defects and...

CuSCN has been widely considered a promising candidate for low-cost and high-stable hole transport material in perovskite semitransparent solar cells (STSCs). However, the low conductivity of the solution-processed CuSCN hole transport layer (HTL) hinders the hole extraction and transport in devices, which makes it hard to achieve devices with high performance. Herein, we report a facile additive engineering approach to optimize the p conductivity of CuSCN HTLs in perovskite STSCs. The n-butylammonium iodide additive facilitates the formation of Cu2+ and generates more Cu vacancies in the CuSCN HTL. This realizes a significant enhancement of the hole concentration and p conductivity of the film. Moreover, the additive improves the solubility of the CuSCN precursor solution and results in a uniform coverage on the perovskite active layer. Therefore, the perovskite STSC with a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.24% has been achieved, which is higher than that of the spiro-OMeTAD (18.83%) and CuSCN (17.45%) counterparts. In addition, the unencapsulated CuSCN-based device retains 87.5% of the initial PCE after 20 days in the ambient atmosphere.

The photoelectrochemical performance of Si photoanode with a metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structure is limited by weak Schottky barrier and poor charge transfer. In this work, a MIS structure, n-Si|dispersed NiSi x /NiO x patches|Au nanoparticles, is designed for efficient water oxidization with high stability. The photoanode exhibits a high activity with a low onset potential of ∼0.88 V and a high photocurrent density of ∼34 mA/cm2 at 1.23 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), and retains excellent stability in 1.0 M NaOH for ∼10 h. We find that the improved photovoltage is contributed by the strengthened pinch-off effect of inhomogeneous Schottky barriers induced by the synergistic effect of decreased Schottky barrier height difference and increased depletion width in n-Si. We show that the enhanced photocurrent attributes to the reduced hole transport resistance by introducing high-conductive NiSi x and Au-NP bridge layers. Our findings demonstrate a promising strategy for the development of highly efficient and stable Si-based photoelectrodes for water oxidization.

Despite the swift rise in power conversion efficiency (PCE) to more than 32%, the instability of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells is still one of the key obstacles to practical application and is closely related to the residual strain of perovskite films. Herein, a simple surface reconstruction strategy is developed to achieve a global incorporation of butylammonium cations at both surface and bulk grain boundaries by post‐treating perovskite films with a mixture of N,N‐dimethylformamide and n‐butylammonium iodide in isopropanol solvent, enabling strain‐free perovskite films with simultaneously reduced defect density, suppressed ion migration, and improved energy level alignment. As a result, the corresponding single‐junction perovskite solar cells yield a champion PCE of 21.8%, while maintaining 100% and 81% of their initial PCEs without encapsulation after storage for over 2500 h in N2 and 1800 h in air, respectively. Remarkably, a certified stabilized PCE of 29.0% for the monolithic perovskite/silicon tandems based on tunnel oxide passivated contacts is further demonstrated. The unencapsulated tandem device retains 86.6% of its initial performance after 306 h at maximum power point (MPP) tracking under continuous xenon‐lamp illumination without filtering ultraviolet light (in air, 20–35 °C, 25–75%RH, most often ≈60%RH).

Applying a periodic light trapping array is an effective method to improve the optical properties in thin-film solar cells. In this work, we experimentally and theoretically investigate the light trapping properties of two-dimensional periodic hexagonal arrays in the framework of a conformal amorphous silicon film. Compared with the planar reference, the double-sided conformal periodic structures with all feature periodicities of sub-wavelength (300 nm), mid-wavelength (640 nm), and infrared wavelength (2300 nm) show significant broadband absorption enhancements under wide angles. The films with an optimum periodicity of 300 nm exhibit outstanding antireflection and excellent trade-off between light scattering performance and parasitic absorption loss. The average absorption of the optimum structure with a thickness of 160 nm is 64.8 %, which is much larger than the planar counterpart of 38.5 %. The methodology applied in this work can be generalized to rational design of other types of high-performance thin-film photovoltaic devices based on a broad range of materials.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-015-0988-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) are widely used as carrier transport interlayers for enabling high‐efficiency perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, achieving uniform and pinhole‐free monolayers on metal oxide (e.g., indium tin oxide, ITO) surfaces is still challenging due to the sensitivity of SAM adsorption to the complex oxide's surface chemistry. Here, the hydrofluoric acid and the subsequent UV–ozone treatment are employed to reconstruct the ITO surface by selectively removing the undesired terminal hydroxyl and hydrolysis product. This can significantly increase the ITO surface activity and area, thus facilitating the adsorption of high‐density SAMs. The resultant fluorinated surface can also prevent the direct contact of ITO with the perovskite active layer and passivate the perovskite bottom interface. Benefiting from the synergistically improved perovskite film formation, charge extraction, energy level alignment, and interfacial chemical stability, the corresponding PSC achieves a greatly enhanced power conversion efficiency of 21.3%, along with an enhanced long‐term stability as compared to the control counterpart. Furthermore, a semitransparent PSC with a certified efficiency of 19.0% (with a record fill factor of 84.1%) and a four‐terminal perovskite/silicon tandem with an efficiency of 28.4% are also demonstrated.

Despite the remarkable rise in the efficiency of perovskite-based solar cells, the stress-induced intrinsic instability of perovskite active layers is widely identified as a critical hurdle for upcoming commercialization. Herein, a long-alkyl-chain anionic surfactant additive is introduced to chemically ameliorate the perovskite crystallization kinetics via surface segregation and micellization, and physically construct a glue-like scaffold to eliminate the residual stresses. As a result, benefiting from the reduced defects, suppressed ion migration and improved energy level alignment, the corresponding unencapsulated perovskite single-junction and perovskite/silicon tandem devices exhibit impressive operational stability with 85.7% and 93.6% of their performance after 3000 h and 450 h at maximum power point tracking under continuous light illumination, providing one of the best stabilities to date under similar test conditions, respectively.