Publication date: 6th November 2020
In the recent decade, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have considered as a strong competitor in the photovoltaic field with a certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of more than 25%. However, the stability of the cells is one of the critical issues that limited commercialization of the PSCs. There are several causes of degradation that influence the chemical and physical properties of the PSCs such as UV light, moisture, temperature, and atmosphere. For this reason, novel materials, including wide bandgap semiconductors, have been developed as charge transport, interface as well as barrier layers to enhance the stability of the PSCs [1]. Molybdenum oxide (MoOx) is considered as an interfacial modifier for the PSCs due to having suitable work function and bandgap. In this work, MoOx thin film of different thicknesses (2, 5, 10, 50, and 100 nm) deposited by electron beam evaporation (e-beam) method as an interlayer for PSCs has been explored. The e-beam method provides greatest reproducibility and control of the films using a wide range of experimental parameters which can customize the morphology, composition, structure and other properties of the MoOx thin films according to the requirements [2]. In this study, we report the optical, physical, chemical and electronic properties of the MoOx film. The bandgap energy of MoOx thin films obtained in the range of 3.60-3.79 eV is appropriate as an interlayer between the perovskite and hole transport layer. The reduction in bandgap energy value is ascribed to oxygen ion vacancies which it confirms with the obtained results from the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for O: Mo ratios. The transmittance of films decreases by increasing the thickness. There is usually an increase in surface roughness with increasing the film thickness. The films with the thicknesses of 5 and 10 nm show a very smooth surface without any crack or hole. It is proposed that using the MoOx film as interlayer at the anode enhances the hole extraction in the PSCs and reduces the humidity and oxygen diffusion into the perovskite layer. The results show that the properties of the MoOx film with appropriate film thickness appeared promising as an interlayer for enhancing the stability of PSCs.
Keywords: perovskite solar cells, interface layer, semiconductor, MoOx thin films, electron beam evaporation
The first author is indebted for QUTPRA scholarship and financial support. This research was mainly done at the Institute for Future Environment (IFE), Central Analytical Research Facility (CARF) at QUT. Access to CARF is supported by generous funding from the Science and Engineering Faculty (QUT).
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