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Sputtered WOx thin film as the electron transport layer for efficient perovskite solar cells

Applied Physics A volume 128, Article number: 358 (2022) Cite this article

Abstract

The electron transport layer (ETL) is critical in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) as it controls the optics of the complete solar cell. This study uses an industrially viable RF magnetron sputtering technique to prepare the tungsten oxide (WOx) ETL for PSCs. Necessary morphological and optoelectronic investigations were carried out to ensure the high-quality WOx thin-film. The influence of the deposition power on the ETL thickness and PSC optics were systematically investigated. A three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) approach analyses the optics and optimization of the complete solar cell. The investigations allow the optimized planar PSC to determine the JSC of > 21 mA/cm2. The optical performance of the planar device is limited due to higher optical losses; hence, the current study proposes a PSC design embedded with Ag nanoparticles. The proposed PSC can improve the JSC by ~ 17% (up to 24.5 mA/cm2) than the planar device owing to improved light trapping, further boosting the PSC's energy conversion efficiency (ECE). A detailed discussion on film realization and solar cell optics is provided.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia for financial support through the Long-term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS/1/2019/ UKM-UKM/6/1). The work is partly supported by the Bangabandhu Fellowship Trust (BBFT), Bangladesh. The authors extend their appreciation for funding to Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP-2021/34), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We also acknowledge the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for supporting using their experimental laboratories.

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Author notes

  1. Samiya Mahjabin and Mohammad Ismail Hossain have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (@The National University of Malaysia), 43600, Bangi, Malaysia

    Samiya Mahjabin, Md. Mahfuzul Haque, Kamaruzzaman Sopian & Md. Akhtaruzzaman

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Mohammad Ismail Hossain

  3. Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Dhaka, 1205, Bangladesh

    M. S. Bashar & M. S. Jamal

  4. Nanomaterials Research Institute (NanoMaRi), Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan

    Md. Shahiduzzaman

  5. Department of Computer Engineering, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11543, Saudi Arabia

    Ghulam Muhammad

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  1. Samiya Mahjabin
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Mahjabin, S., Hossain, M.I., Haque, M.M. et al. Sputtered WOx thin film as the electron transport layer for efficient perovskite solar cells. Appl. Phys. A 128, 358 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-022-05500-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-022-05500-5

Keywords

  • WOx thin film
  • Electron transport layer
  • Magnetron sputtering
  • Perovskite solar cell optics
  • FDTD