Atomic layer deposition of metal oxides for efficient perovskite single-junction and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

Mohammad I Hossain; Adnan Mohammad; Wayesh Qarony; Saidjafarzoda Ilhom; Deepa R Shukla; Dietmar Knipp; Necmi Biyikli; Yuen Hong Tsang

doi:10.1039/d0ra00939c

Atomic layer deposition of metal oxides for efficient perovskite single-junction and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

RSC Adv. 2020 Apr 14;10(25):14856-14866. doi: 10.1039/d0ra00939c. eCollection 2020 Apr 8.

Authors

Mohammad I Hossain^{1

2}, Adnan Mohammad², Wayesh Qarony¹, Saidjafarzoda Ilhom², Deepa R Shukla^{2

3}, Dietmar Knipp⁴, Necmi Biyikli², Yuen Hong Tsang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom Kowloon Hong Kong yuen.tsang@polyu.edu.hk.
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Connecticut Storrs CT 06269 USA necmi.biyikli@uconn.edu.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut Storrs CT 06269 USA.
⁴ Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University Stanford CA 94305 USA dknipp@stanford.edu.

Abstract

Aluminum-doped and undoped zinc oxide films were investigated as potential front and rear contacts of perovskite single and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The films were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at low (<200 °C) substrate temperatures. The deposited films were crystalline with a single-phase wurtzite structure and exhibit excellent uniformity and low surface roughness which was confirmed by XRD and SEM measurements. Necessary material characterizations allow for realizing high-quality films with low resistivity and high optical transparency at the standard growth rate. Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were carried out to extract the complex refractive index of the deposited films, which were used to study the optics of perovskite single junction and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The optics was investigated by three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations. Guidelines are provided on how to realize perovskite solar cells exhibiting high short-circuit current densities. Furthermore, detailed guidelines are given for realizing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with short-circuit current densities exceeding 20 mA cm^-2 and potential energy conversion efficiencies beyond 31%.