Abstract
AbstractSputtered transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are widely accepted transparent electrodes for several types of high‐efficiency solar cells. However, the different sputtering yield of atoms makes stoichiometric transfer of target material challenging for multi‐compounds. Additionally, the high kinetic energies of the arriving species may damage sensitive functional layers beneath. Conversely, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is operated at higher deposition pressures promoting thermalization of particles. This leads to stoichiometric transfer and additionally reduces the kinetic energy of ablated species. Despite these advantages, PLD is rarely used within the photovoltaic community due to concerns about low deposition rates and the scalability of the technique. In this study, wafer‐scale (4‐inch) PLD of high‐mobility Zr‐doped In2O3 (IZrO) TCO for solar cells is demonstrated. IZrO films are grown at room temperature with deposition rate on par with RF‐sputtering (>4 nm min−1). As‐deposited IZrO films are mostly amorphous and exhibit excellent optoelectronic properties after solid phase crystallization at <200 °C. 100‐nm thick films feature a sheet resistance of 21 Ω◻−1 with electron mobilities ≈70 cm2 V−1s−1. PLD‐grown IZrO is applied as rear electrode in efficient semi‐transparent halide perovskite solar cells leading to the improved stabilized maximum power point efficiency (15.1%) as compared to the cells with sputtered ITO electrodes (11.9%).
Highlights
Background of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) ProcessThe principle of PLD processes is illustrated in Figure 1a and is briefly summarized below
Www.advancedsciencenews.com www.advmattechnol.de pulses of ns duration. This leads to explosive removal of the material from the target surface confined in the plasma plume that expands in the direction perpendicular to the substrate
For IZrO deposited by either, PLD or sputtering, the Hall mobility increases after the annealing step at 200 °C reaching >70 cm2 V−1s−1 which is more than twice the as-deposited value
Summary
This leads to explosive removal of the material from the target surface confined in the plasma plume that expands in the direction perpendicular to the substrate. 2. Providing flexibility for processing parameters since the energy source for material ablation is physically decoupled from the vacuum equipment. Providing flexibility for processing parameters since the energy source for material ablation is physically decoupled from the vacuum equipment This gives a larger choice for deposition pressures as no restriction for glow discharge pressure is present. This allows control of particles’ kinetic energy when landing on the substrate. 3. Allowing the precise control of the number of arriving particles enabling layer-by-layer growth thanks to the pulsed nature of the process. We discuss other above-mentioned advantages by comparing the properties of the PLD-grown and sputtered films of IZrO from the same target composition
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