Wafer-scale pulsed laser deposition of ITO for solar cells: reduced damage <i>vs.</i> interfacial resistance

Smirnov, Yury; Répécaud, Pierre-Alexis; Tutsch, Leonard; Florea, Ileana; Zanoni, Kassio P. S.; Paliwal, Abhyuday; Bolink, Henk J.; Roca, Pere; Bivour, Martin; Morales‐Masis, Monica

doi:10.1039/d1ma01225h

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Similar trends in transmission spectra of PLD-deposited ITO films as a function of chamber pressure and thickness were observed by Kim et al for ITO films deposited at 300 °C [44] and by Smirnov et al for PLD ITO deposited at room temperature. [34] As expected, the sheet resistance increases for the lessdense films deposited at higher chamber pressures (Figures S4 and S5, supporting information). In fact, a surprisingly linear correlation is observed between the PLD chamber pressure and the logarithmic of the sheet resistance and conductivity (Figure S5B-D, Supporting Information).…”

Section: Ito Film Characterizationsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…[31] With increasing the chamber pressure, the background gas inside the chamber decreases the kinetic energy of the ablated species in the plasma via thermalization, hence the impact of the deposition on the substrate is expected to be less damaging. [17] Despite its encouraging perspectives, there are just a few reports on the successful usage of PLDdeposited TCOs on thin-film photovoltaic devices, such as AZO, GZO, and B-doped ZnO bottom-contacts for a Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 thinfilm solar cell, [32] and AZO or GZO top-electrodes for organic solar cells, [3,33] as well as IZrO and ITO as the top-electrode on PSCs, [2,34] and perovskite-based tandem solar cells. [35] However, in these perovskite device examples, the PCE did not exceed 15%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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ITO Top‐Electrodes via Industrial‐Scale PLD for Efficient Buffer‐Layer‐Free Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells

Zanoni

Paliwal

Hernández-Fenollosa

et al. 2022

Adv Materials Technologies

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well-established state-of-the-art devices such as silicon heterojunction solar cells and inorganic and organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and organic solar cells. [5][6][7][8] There are also many examples of TCOs in new approaches that simultaneously require semitransparency and flexibility, such as semitransparent conductors, field-effect transistors, thermal shields, photo-detectors, and vertical transistors. [9][10][11][12][13][14] PSCs have attracted much interest since their onset in 2009 due to rapidly-increasing power conversion efficiencies (currently above 25% for small area cells). The perovskite layer and any adjacent charge transport layers can be fabricated in many ways using either solution-based processes or vacuum-assisted deposition. Vacuum-based deposition has the advantage of better control over the film thickness and is an additive method, moreover, it is a widely employed method of production of the before mentioned opto-electronic devices. [15,16] Despite the benefits and promising perspectives of using TCOs in optoelectronics, the development of organic/TCO (TCO on top of organic) bi-layer structures is still a non-trivial challenge because of the generally harsh processing conditions involved in the deposition of the TCO layers. [17] For both lab-and industrial-scale deposition of TCO, magnetron sputtering is the most widespread technique. It is a vacuumbased process that employs direct current or radio frequency to excite a carrier gas (most commonly Ar) into a high kinetic energy plasma which bombards a target material, resulting in the transfer of fragments from the target to substrates positioned above it. However, the accelerated particles, together with side phenomena such as plasma luminescence and processing-induced heat, can easily damage soft organic semiconductor layers, leading to increased leakage current, as well as reduced efficiency and a lower lifetime of the optoelectronic device. [18,19] To overcome this limitation, a protective buffer layer is deposited prior to the TCO deposition. [17] Also, many efforts were proposed to minimize damages of sputtering deposition on buffer-layer-free stacks by lowering the power density threshold by changes in power, target to substrate distance, sputtering gas, and process pressure, [20][21][22][23][24] but at the expense of longer processing times. [22,[25][26][27][28][29] Among these reports, the most efficient buffer-layer-free PSC using TCO top-electrode was achieved by Ramos et al. employing a post-annealed ITO sputtered directly onto a thick (290 nm) spiro-OMeTAD hole The deposition of transparent conductive oxides (TCO) usually employs harsh conditions that are frequently harmful to soft/organic underlayers. Herein, successful use of an industrial pulsed laser deposition (PLD) tool to directly deposit indium tin oxide (ITO) films on semitransparent vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells without damage to the device stack is demonstrated. The morphological, electronic, and optical properties o...

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Section: Ito Film Characterizationsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ITO Top‐Electrodes via Industrial‐Scale PLD for Efficient Buffer‐Layer‐Free Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells

Zanoni

Paliwal

Hernández-Fenollosa

et al. 2022

Adv Materials Technologies

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“…In particular, PLD allows to tune the optoelectronic characteristics by controlling the chamber pressure and introducing oxygen or an inert gas in the vacuum chamber. − Besides, PLD is a scalable, high throughput manufacturing technology that can produce conformal compact films on flat and textured surfaces and allow for precise control of thickness. Moreover, recently we demonstrated that PLD is a method that allows for soft deposition of metal oxide film without damaging underlaying organic or perovskite based semiconductors. , Despite its encouraging perspectives, there is only one example in the literature of PLD being employed to deposit SnO 2 ETLs, in which Chen et al demonstrated that the amorphous nature of the films deposited by PLD is suitable for flexible photovoltaics . In that work, an average PCE of 16.3% was obtained, yet the devices suffered from fairly high series and low shunt resistances due to the low conductivity and slightly rough surface of the SnO 2 films, respectively, which limited the fill factor (FF) to 70% on average.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, recently we demonstrated that PLD is a method that allows for soft deposition of metal oxide film without damaging underlaying organic or perovskite based semiconductors. 26,27 Despite its encouraging perspectives, there is only one example in the literature of PLD being employed to deposit SnO 2 ETLs, in which Chen et al demonstrated that the amorphous nature of the films deposited by PLD is suitable for flexible photovoltaics. 28 In that work, an average PCE of 16.3% was obtained, yet the devices suffered from fairly high series and low shunt resistances due to the low conductivity and slightly rough surface of the SnO 2 films, respectively, which limited the fill factor (FF) to 70% on average.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tin(IV) Oxide Electron Transport Layer via Industrial-Scale Pulsed Laser Deposition for Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Zanoni

Pérez‐del‐Rey

Dreeßen

et al. 2023

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Electron transport layers (ETL) based on tin(IV) oxide (SnO 2 ) are recurrently employed in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) by many deposition techniques. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) offers a few advantages for the fabrication of such layers, such as being compatible with large scale, patternable, and allowing deposition at fast rates. However, a precise understanding of how the deposition parameters can affect the SnO 2 film, and as a consequence the solar cell performance, is needed. Herein, we use a PLD tool equipped with a droplet trap to minimize the number of excess particles (originated from debris) reaching the substrate, and we show how to control the PLD chamber pressure to obtain surfaces with very low roughness and how the concentration of oxygen in the background gas can affect the number of oxygen vacancies in the film. Using optimized deposition conditions, we obtained solar cells in the n−i−p configuration employing methylammonium lead iodide perovskite as the absorber layer with power conversion efficiencies exceeding 18% and identical performance to devices having the more typical atomic layer deposited SnO 2 ETL.

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“…[23] In addition, low damage deposition of tin-and zirconium-doped indium oxides (ITO & IZrO) by PLD as the top electrodes in p-i-n PSCs has been demonstrated in a number of studies. [24,25] This stems from the possibility to use a broad range of deposition pressures and laser energy densities to mitigate the kinetic energy of the ablated species arriving to the substrate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Damage Scalable Pulsed Laser Deposition of SnO₂ for p–i–n Perovskite Solar Cells

Soltanpoor,

Bracesco,

Rodkey

et al. 2023

Solar RRL

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Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) has already been adopted as a low damage deposition technique of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) on top of sensitive organic charge transport layers in optoelectronic devices. Here we demonstrate SnO2 deposition as buffer layer in p–i–n perovskite solar cells (PSCs) via wafer‐scale (4‐inch) PLD at room temperature. The PLD SnO2 properties, its interface with perovskite/C60 and device performance are compared to atomic layer deposited (ALD) SnO2, i.e. state of the art buffer layer in perovskite‐based single junction and tandem photovoltaics. The PLD SnO2 based solar cells exhibited on par efficiencies (17.8%) with that of SnO2 fabricated using ALD. The solvent‐free, room temperature processing and wafer scale approach of PLD, opens up possibilities for buffer layer formation with increased deposition rates while mitigating potential thermal or physical damage to the top organic layers. This is a promising outlook for fully physical vapor processed halide PSCs and optoelectronic devices requiring low thermal budget.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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Wafer-scale pulsed laser deposition of ITO for solar cells: reduced damage vs. interfacial resistance

Abstract: Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in solar cells must be optimized to achieve minimum parasitic absorption losses while providing sufficient lateral conductivity. Low contact resistance with the adjacent device layers...

Cited by 17 publications

References 43 publications

ITO Top‐Electrodes via Industrial‐Scale PLD for Efficient Buffer‐Layer‐Free Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells

ITO Top‐Electrodes via Industrial‐Scale PLD for Efficient Buffer‐Layer‐Free Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells

Tin(IV) Oxide Electron Transport Layer via Industrial-Scale Pulsed Laser Deposition for Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Low Damage Scalable Pulsed Laser Deposition of SnO₂ for p–i–n Perovskite Solar Cells

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Wafer-scale pulsed laser deposition of ITO for solar cells: reduced damage vs. interfacial resistance

Abstract: Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in solar cells must be optimized to achieve minimum parasitic absorption losses while providing sufficient lateral conductivity. Low contact resistance with the adjacent device layers...

Cited by 17 publications

References 43 publications

ITO Top‐Electrodes via Industrial‐Scale PLD for Efficient Buffer‐Layer‐Free Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells

ITO Top‐Electrodes via Industrial‐Scale PLD for Efficient Buffer‐Layer‐Free Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells

Tin(IV) Oxide Electron Transport Layer via Industrial-Scale Pulsed Laser Deposition for Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Low Damage Scalable Pulsed Laser Deposition of SnO2 for p–i–n Perovskite Solar Cells

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Low Damage Scalable Pulsed Laser Deposition of SnO₂ for p–i–n Perovskite Solar Cells