Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Reducing sputter induced stress and damage for efficient perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

Journal Article · · Journal of Materials Chemistry. A
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ta09143c· OSTI ID:1836280
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [3];  [2]
  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States); The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  2. Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States); Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
  3. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
  5. Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
Reducing damages caused by sputtering of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrodes is critical in achieving highly efficient and stable perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Here we study the sputter caused damage to bathocuproine (BCP), which is widely used in highly efficient p-i-n structure single junction perovskite solar cells. While BCP buffer layer protects the underneath layers from damage, itself can be damaged by sputtering of TCOs at a wide range of target-substrate distances, supported by molecular dynamic simulation. More intriguingly, it is observed that TCO easily peeled off after sputtering when the sputtering target is close to substrate. This is ascribed to formation of stress during cooling down process after sputtering due to different thermal expansion coefficients of the layers. Our studies explain why tin oxide (SnO2) made by atomic layer deposition can replace BCP for a much better tandem device performance. SnO2 has high affinity with sputtered TCO electrode to suppress peeling-off issue and has higher bond energy to resist sputter induced damage, thus it allows a wider window of target-substrate distances than BCP during TCO sputtering. Ultimately, we demonstrate an efficient perovskite/silicon monolithic tandem solar cell with efficiency of 26.0% to illustrate the beneficial effects of reduced stress and damage.
Research Organization:
Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0008749
OSTI ID:
1836280
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1837342
OSTI ID: 1884311
OSTI ID: 1894781
Journal Information:
Journal of Materials Chemistry. A, Journal Name: Journal of Materials Chemistry. A Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 10; ISSN 2050-7488
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (35)

CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 Perovskite/Fullerene Planar-Heterojunction Hybrid Solar Cells journal June 2013
Thermal and Environmental Stability of Semi-Transparent Perovskite Solar Cells for Tandems Enabled by a Solution-Processed Nanoparticle Buffer Layer and Sputtered ITO Electrode journal February 2016
Monte Carlo simulation of the particle transport process in sputter deposition journal February 1984
Comparative studies on damages to organic layer during the deposition of ITO films by various sputtering methods journal November 2013
An HAXPES study of Sn, SnS, SnO and SnO2 journal August 2014
Grain Engineering for Perovskite/Silicon Monolithic Tandem Solar Cells with Efficiency of 25.4% journal January 2019
Low-temperature processed efficient and colourful semitransparent perovskite solar cells for building integration and tandem applications journal February 2019
Understanding the mechanisms that change the conductivity of damaged ITO-coated polymeric films: A micro-mechanical investigation journal November 2014
Present status of transparent conducting oxide thin-film development for Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) substitutes journal July 2008
Analysis of Sputtering Damage on IV Curves for Perovskite Solar Cells and Simulation with Reversed Diode Model journal December 2016
Selecting tandem partners for silicon solar cells journal September 2016
23.6%-efficient monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with improved stability journal February 2017
Opportunities and challenges for tandem solar cells using metal halide perovskite semiconductors journal July 2018
Techno-economic viability of silicon-based tandem photovoltaic modules in the United States journal July 2018
Managing grains and interfaces via ligand anchoring enables 22.3%-efficiency inverted perovskite solar cells journal January 2020
Fully textured monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with 25.2% power conversion efficiency journal June 2018
Textured interfaces in monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells: advanced light management for improved efficiency and energy yield journal January 2018
A facile room temperature solution synthesis of SnO 2 quantum dots for perovskite solar cells journal January 2019
A perovskite/silicon hybrid system with a solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency of 25.5% journal January 2019
Interfacial passivation of wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells and tandem solar cells journal January 2021
Ice Film Morphologies and the Structure Zone Model
  • Cartwright, Julyan H. E.; Escribano, Bruno; Piro, Oreste
  • COMPLEX SYSTEMS: 5th International Workshop on Complex Systems, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2897880
conference January 2008
Design of BCP buffer layer for inverted perovskite solar cells using ideal factor journal March 2019
Influence of apparatus geometry and deposition conditions on the structure and topography of thick sputtered coatings journal July 1974
Influence of energetic bombardment on stress, resistivity, and microstructure of indium tin oxide films grown by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on flexible polyester substrates
  • Carcia, P. F.; McLean, R. S.; Reilly, M. H.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A: Vacuum, Surfaces, and Films, Vol. 21, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1566789
journal May 2003
Strained hybrid perovskite thin films and their impact on the intrinsic stability of perovskite solar cells journal November 2017
Perovskite-perovskite tandem photovoltaics with optimized band gaps journal October 2016
Efficient and stable solution-processed planar perovskite solar cells via contact passivation journal February 2017
Enhanced photovoltage for inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells journal June 2018
Challenges for commercializing perovskite solar cells journal September 2018
Efficient tandem solar cells with solution-processed perovskite on textured crystalline silicon journal March 2020
Triple-halide wide–band gap perovskites with suppressed phase segregation for efficient tandems journal March 2020
Monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell with >29% efficiency by enhanced hole extraction journal December 2020
Thermal expansion of thin C60 films journal November 1998
Bond-breaking mechanism of sputtering journal December 2000
Mechanical properties of A Pb X 3 ( A = Cs or CH 3 NH 3 ; X = I or Br) perovskite single crystals journal October 2015