Publication date: 22nd July 2026
Vacuum-based deposition is a scalable, solvent-free industrial method ideal for uniform coatings on complex substrates. However, all-vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells fabricated by thermal evaporation trail solution-processed counterparts in efficiency and stability due to film quality challenges, necessitating advancement and improved understanding. Here, we report a co-evaporation route for 1.67-eV wide-bandgap perovskites by introducing a PbCl2 co-source to optimize film quality. We promote perovskite formation with pronounced (100) ‘face-up’ orientation and deliver a certified all-vacuum-deposited solar cell with 18.35% efficiency (19.3% in the laboratory) for 0.25-cm2 devices (18.5% for 1-cm2 cells). These cells retain 80% of peak efficiency after 1,080 h under the ISOS-L-2 protocol. Leveraging operando hyperspectral imaging, we provide spatiotemporal spectral insight into halide segregation and trap-mediated recombination, correlating microscopic luminescence features with macroscopic device performance while distinguishing radiative from non-ideal recombination channels. We further demonstrate 27.2%-efficient 1-cm2 evaporated perovskite-on-silicon tandem cells and outdoor stability of all-vacuum-deposited tandems in Italy, retaining ~80% initial performance after eight months.
This work was partly funded by UKRI under the UK government's Horizon Europe funding Guarantee(grant 10054976). The NEXUS project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant 101075330. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or RIA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This work was partly funded by the EPSRC under grant EP/X038777/1. We acknowledge the National Thin Film Cluster Facility for Advanced Functional Materials at Oxford, which has been funded by the EPSRC (EP/M022900/1), the Wolfson Foundation and the University of Oxford. Y.-H.L., W.T.H. and L.R. acknowledge support from the Early Career Scheme (no. 26210623) from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council. X.S., W.T.H., L.R., B.S.T.T., F.S.Y.Y. and Y.-H.L.acknowledge support from the State Key Laboratory of Displays and Opto-Electronics. X.S. acknowledges Oxford PV Ltd for sponsoring his studentship. We acknowledge the Diamond Light Source for access to beamline I07 (proposal SI39532) that contributed to in situ GIWAXS measurements.
