New Physical Deposition Approach for Low Cost Inorganic Hole Transport Layer in Normal Architecture of Durable Perovskite Solar Cells.

In this work we reported sputter deposited NiOx/Ni double layer as an HTM/contact couple in normal architecture of perovskite solar cell. A perovskite solar cell that is durable for more than 60 days was achieved, with increasing efficiency from 1.3% to 7.28% within 6 days. Moreover, low temperature direct deposition of NiOx layer on perovskite layer was introduced as a potential hole transport material for an efficient cost-effective solar cell applicable for various morphologies of perovskite layers, even for perovskite layers containing pinholes, which is a notable challenge in perovskite solar cells. The angular deposition of NiOx layers by dc reactive magnetron sputtering showed uniform and crack-free coverage of the perovskite layer with no negative impact on perovskite structure that is suitable for nickel back contact layer, surface shielding against moisture, and mechanical damages. Replacing the expensive complex materials in previous perovskite solar cells with low cost available materials introduces cost-effective scalable perovskite solar cells.