TY - JOUR
T1 - Parasitic Absorption Reduction in Metal Oxide-Based Transparent Electrodes
T2 - Application in Perovskite Solar Cells
AU - Werner, Jérémie
AU - Geissbühler, Jonas
AU - Dabirian, Ali
AU - Nicolay, Sylvain
AU - Morales-Masis, Monica
AU - Wolf, Stefaan De
AU - Niesen, Bjoern
AU - Ballif, Christophe
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2016/7/13
Y1 - 2016/7/13
N2 - Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are commonly used in a wide spectrum of device applications, thanks to their interesting electronic, photochromic, and electrochromic properties. Their environmental sensitivity, exploited for gas and chemical sensors, is however undesirable for application in optoelectronic devices, where TMOs are used as charge injection or extraction layers. In this work, we first study the coloration of molybdenum and tungsten oxide layers, induced by thermal annealing, Ar plasma exposure, or transparent conducting oxide overlayer deposition, typically used in solar cell fabrication. We then propose a discoloration method based on an oxidizing CO2 plasma treatment, which allows for a complete bleaching of colored TMO films and prevents any subsequent recoloration during following cell processing steps. Then, we show that tungsten oxide is intrinsically more resilient to damage induced by Ar plasma exposure as compared to the commonly used molybdenum oxide. Finally, we show that parasitic absorption in TMO-based transparent electrodes, as used for semitransparent perovskite solar cells, silicon heterojunction solar cells, or perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, can be drastically reduced by replacing molybdenum oxide with tungsten oxide and by applying a CO2 plasma pretreatment prior to the transparent conductive oxide overlayer deposition.
AB - Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are commonly used in a wide spectrum of device applications, thanks to their interesting electronic, photochromic, and electrochromic properties. Their environmental sensitivity, exploited for gas and chemical sensors, is however undesirable for application in optoelectronic devices, where TMOs are used as charge injection or extraction layers. In this work, we first study the coloration of molybdenum and tungsten oxide layers, induced by thermal annealing, Ar plasma exposure, or transparent conducting oxide overlayer deposition, typically used in solar cell fabrication. We then propose a discoloration method based on an oxidizing CO2 plasma treatment, which allows for a complete bleaching of colored TMO films and prevents any subsequent recoloration during following cell processing steps. Then, we show that tungsten oxide is intrinsically more resilient to damage induced by Ar plasma exposure as compared to the commonly used molybdenum oxide. Finally, we show that parasitic absorption in TMO-based transparent electrodes, as used for semitransparent perovskite solar cells, silicon heterojunction solar cells, or perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, can be drastically reduced by replacing molybdenum oxide with tungsten oxide and by applying a CO2 plasma pretreatment prior to the transparent conductive oxide overlayer deposition.
KW - CO
KW - molybdenum oxide
KW - perovskite
KW - plasma treatment
KW - silicon heterojunction
KW - solar cell
KW - tandem
KW - tungsten oxide
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84978381187&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.6b04425
DO - 10.1021/acsami.6b04425
M3 - Article
C2 - 27338079
AN - SCOPUS:84978381187
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 8
SP - 17260
EP - 17267
JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
IS - 27
ER -