0000000000188378
AUTHOR
Abhyuday Paliwal
Perovskite/Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells in the Substrate Configuration with Potential for Bifacial Operation.
Perovskite/perovskite tandem solar cells have recently exceeded the record power conversion efficiency (PCE) of single-junction perovskite solar cells. They are typically built in the superstrate configuration, in which the device is illuminated from the substrate side. This limits the fabrication of the solar cell to transparent substrates, typically glass coated with a transparent conductive oxide (TCO), and adds constraints because the first subcell that is deposited on the substrate must contain the wide-bandgap perovskite. However, devices in the substrate configuration could potentially be fabricated on a large variety of opaque and inexpensive substrates, such as plastic and metal fo…
Intrinsic Organic Semiconductors as Hole Transport Layers in p–i–n Perovskite Solar Cells
Thin polymeric and small-molecular-weight organic semiconductors are widely employed as hole transport layers (HTLs) in perovskite solar cells. To ensure ohmic contact with the electrodes, the use of doping or additional high work function (WF) interlayer is common. In some cases, however, intrinsic organic semiconductors can be used without any additive or buffer layers, although their thickness must be tuned to ensure selective and ohmic hole transport. Herein, the characteristics of thin HTLs in vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells are studied, and it is found that only very thin (<5 nm) HTLs readily result inhigh-performing devices, as the HTL acts as a WF enhancer while still ens…
Wafer-scale pulsed laser deposition of ITO for solar cells: reduced damage vs. interfacial resistance
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 and low damage to the substrate during deposition of the TCO are also important requirements to ensure high solar cell efficiencies. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) has been proposed as an alternative low-damage TCO deposition technique on top of sensitive layers and interfaces in organic and perovskite solar cells but is yet to be studied for the more mature silicon technology. Focusing on the PLD deposition pressure as the key parameter to reduce damage, we developed t…
Transparent Light‐Emitting Electrochemical Cells
Single layer light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) are amongst the simplest electroluminescent devices and operate with air-stable electrodes. Transparent light-emitting devices are of great interest as they can enable new applications in consumer electronics. In this work, a transparent ionic transition metal complex based LEC is fabricated by developing a transparent top contact based on tin (IV) oxide (SnO2) and indium-tin oxide, processed by low-temperature atomic layer deposition and pulsed laser deposition, respectively. The resulting devices present transparency in excess of 75% over the full visible spectrum (380-750 nm), with 82% transmission at the emission peak (563 nm). Th…
Sputtered transparent electrodes for optoelectronic devices
Summary Transparent electrodes and metal contacts deposited by magnetron sputtering find applications in numerous state-of-the-art optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes. However, the deposition of such thin films may damage underlying sensitive device layers due to plasma emission and particle impact. Inserting a buffer layer to shield against such damage is a common mitigation approach. We start this review by describing how sputtered transparent top electrodes have become archetypal for a broad range of optoelectronic devices and then discuss the possible detrimental consequences of sputter damage on device performance. Next, we review common buffer-layer m…
Vacuum-Deposited Microcavity Perovskite Photovoltaic Devices
The interaction between semiconductor materials and electromagnetic fields resonating in microcavities or the light-matter coupling is of both fundamental and practical significance for improving the performance of various photonic technologies. The demonstration of light-matter coupling effects in the emerging perovskite-based optoelectronic devices via optical pumping and electrical readout (e.g., photovoltaics) and vice versa (e.g., light-emitting diodes), however, is still scarce. Here, we demonstrate the microcavity formation in vacuum-deposited methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3, MAPI) p-i-n photovoltaic devices fabricated between two reflecting silver electrodes. We tune the posi…
Simple approach for an electron extraction layer in all-vacuum processed n-i-p perovskite solar cell
Vacuum processing is considered to be a promising method allowing the scalable fabrication of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In vacuum processed PSCs, the n-i-p structure employing organic charge transport layers is less common than the p-i-n structure due to limited options to achieve an efficient electron extraction layer (EEL) on indium tin oxide (ITO) with vacuum thermal evaporation. There are a number of specific applications where an n-i-p structure is required and therefore, it is of interest to have alternative solutions for the n-type contact in vacuum processed PSCs. In this work, we report an efficient vacuum deposited EEL using a mixture of conventional organic small molecules, …
Efficient Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells Based on Thin Compact Vacuum Deposited CH3NH3PbI3 Films
Lead halide perovskite materials are promising candidates for the application of semitransparent solar cells due to their bandgap tunability and high device efficiencies. The high absorption coefficient of these materials, however, makes it difficult to attain high average visible transmittance values without compromising the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). In this work, a co-evaporation process is employed to fabricate thin (50 and 100 nm) methylammonium lead iodide (MAPI) perovskite films and integrate them in semitransparent perovskite solar cells (ST-PSCs). Due to the compact nature of the thin MAPI films, the resultant fully vacuum and room temperature-processed devices demonstra…
ITO top-electrodes via industrial-scale PLD for efficient buffer-layer-free semitransparent perovskite solar cells
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 of the PLD deposited ITO films are optimized. A direct relation between the PLD chamber pressure and the solar cell performance is obtained. The semitransparent perovskite solar cells prepared exclusively by vacuum-assisted techniques had fill factors of 78% and exc…