Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition of Nitrogen-doped Alumina Thin Films for High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cell Encapsulation
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Date
2024-08
Authors
Asgarimoghaddam, Hatameh
Chen, Qiaoyun
Ye, Fan
Shahin, Ahmed
Marchione, Olivia
Song, Bo
Musselman, Kevin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
An atmospheric-pressure spatial atomic layer deposition (AP-SALD) system is used to deposit nitrogen-doped alumina (N-AlOx) thin-film-encapsulation layers. The rapid nature of the AP-SALD process facilitates deposition of 60-nm layers directly on perovskite solar cells at 130 °C with no damage to the temperature-sensitive perovskite and organic materials. Varying the bubbling of a NH4OH precursor varied the nitrogen concentration from 0.08 to 0.68 atomic %. These small concentrations were found to have a significant impact on the structural properties of the films and their moisture barrier performance. The N-AlOx thin films had slightly higher growth rates than undoped AlOx, less unwanted hydroxyl and carbon content, and were smoother and more compact, which was attributed to a higher flux of reactive species from the volatile NH4OH. Optical calcium tests showed that the N-AlOx films had lower water-vapor-transmission rates (~10-5 g/m2/day) than undoped AlOx films and the transmission was minimized for 0.28% nitrogen. The increased compactness of the N-AlOx films is expected to minimize nanoscale percolation pathways, whereas higher nitrogen-defect concentrations may facilitate water permeation through these pathways. The stability of n-i-p and p-i-n perovskite solar cells under standard ISOS-D-1 and ISOS-D-3 testing conditions was significantly enhanced by the encapsulation layers. An N-AlOx encapsulation layer with 0.28% nitrogen improved the T80 value of a p-i-n formamidinium methylammonium lead iodide solar cell from 144 hrs to 855 hrs (ISOS-D-1) and 52 hrs to 300 hrs (ISOS-D-3).
Description
The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2024.109782. © 2024. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Keywords
alumina (AlOx), nitrogen doping, atmospheric-pressure spatial atomic layer deposition (AP-SALD), thin film encapsulation (TFE), perovskite solar cells (PSCs)