Effect of different oxygen precursors on alumina deposited using a spatial atomic layer deposition system for thin-film encapsulation of perovskite solar cells

Hatameh Asgarimoghaddam; Qiaoyun Chen; Fan Ye; Ahmed Shahin; Bo Song; Kevin P Musselman

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ad1059

Effect of different oxygen precursors on alumina deposited using a spatial atomic layer deposition system for thin-film encapsulation of perovskite solar cells

Nanotechnology. 2023 Dec 15;35(9). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad1059.

Authors

Hatameh Asgarimoghaddam^{1

2}, Qiaoyun Chen^{1

2

3}, Fan Ye^{1

2}, Ahmed Shahin^{1

2}, Bo Song³, Kevin P Musselman^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. West, Waterloo N2L 3G1, Canada.
² Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. West, Waterloo N2L 3G1, Canada.
³ Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Novel Semiconductor Materials and Devices, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 38016447
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ad1059

Abstract

An atmospheric-pressure spatial atomic layer deposition system operated in atmospheric-pressure spatial chemical vapor deposition conditions is employed to deposit alumina (AlO_x) thin films using trimethylaluminum and different oxidants, including water (H₂O), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), and ozone (O₃). The impact of the oxygen precursor on the structural properties of the films and their moisture-barrier performance is investigated. The O₃-AlO_xfilms, followed by H₂O₂-AlO_x, exhibit higher refractive indexes, lower concentrations of OH- groups, and lower water-vapor-transmission rates compared to the films deposited using water (H₂O-AlO_x). The AlO_xfilms are then rapidly deposited as thin-film-encapsulation layers on perovskite solar cells at 130 °C without damaging the temperature-sensitive perovskite and organic materials. The stability of thep-i-nformamidinium methylammonium lead iodide solar cells under standard ISOS-D-3 testing conditions (65 °C and 85% relative humidity) is significantly enhanced by the encapsulation layers. Specifically, the O₃-AlO_xand H₂O₂-AlO_xlayers result in a six-fold increase in the time required for the cells to degrade to 80% of their original efficiency compared to un-encapsulated cells.

Keywords: alumina (Al2O3); atmospheric-pressure spatial atomic layer deposition (AP-SALD); hydrogen peroxide (H2O2); ozone (O3); perovskite solar cells (PSCs); thin film encapsulation (TFE).

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