Timo Jäger

Low-temperature-processed efficient semi-transparent planar perovskite solar cells for bifacial and tandem applications

Semi-transparent perovskite solar cells are highly attractive for a wide range of applications, such as bifacial and tandem solar cells; however, the power conversion efficiency of semi-transparent devices still lags behind due to missing suitable transparent rear electrode or deposition process. Here we report a low-temperature process for efficient semi-transparent planar perovskite solar cells. A hybrid thermal evaporation–spin coating technique is developed to allow the introduction of PCBM in regular device configuration, which facilitates the growth of high-quality absorber, resulting in hysteresis-free devices. We employ high-mobility hydrogenated indium oxide as transparent rear electrode by room-temperature radio-frequency magnetron sputtering, yielding a semi-transparent solar cell with steady-state efficiency of 14.2% along with 72% average transmittance in the near-infrared region. With such semi-transparent devices, we show a substantial power enhancement when operating as bifacial solar cell, and in combination with low-bandgap copper indium gallium diselenide we further demonstrate 20.5% efficiency in four-terminal tandem configuration.

Doping of polycrystalline CdTe for high-efficiency solar cells on flexible metal foil

Roll-to-roll manufacturing of CdTe solar cells on flexible metal foil substrates is one of the most attractive options for low-cost photovoltaic module production. However, various efforts to grow CdTe solar cells on metal foil have resulted in low efficiencies. This is caused by the fact that the conventional device structure must be inverted, which imposes severe restrictions on device processing and consequently limits the electronic quality of the CdTe layer. Here we introduce an innovative concept for the controlled doping of the CdTe layer in the inverted device structure by means of evaporation of sub-monolayer amounts of Cu and subsequent annealing, which enables breakthrough efficiencies up to 13.6%. For the first time, CdTe solar cells on metal foil exceed the 10% efficiency threshold for industrialization. The controlled doping of CdTe with Cu leads to increased hole density, enhanced carrier lifetime and improved carrier collection in the solar cell. Our results offer new research directions for solving persistent challenges of CdTe photovoltaics.

Hydrogenated indium oxide window layers for high-efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells

High mobility hydrogenated indium oxide is investigated as a transparent contact for thin film Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells. Hydrogen doping of In2O3 thin films is achieved by injection of H2O water vapor or H2 gas during the sputter process. As-deposited amorphous In2O3:H films exhibit a high electron mobility of ∼50u2009cm2/Vs at room temperature. A bulk hydrogen concentration of ∼4 at. % was measured for both optimized H2O and H2-processed films, although the H2O-derived film exhibits a doping gradient as detected by elastic recoil detection analysis. Amorphous IOH films are implemented as front contacts in CIGS based solar cells, and their performance is compared with the reference ZnO:Al electrodes. The most significant feature of IOH containing devices is an enhanced open circuit voltage (VOC) of ∼20u2009mV regardless of the doping approach, whereas the short circuit current and fill factor remain the same for the H2O case or slightly decrease for H2. The overall power conversion efficiency is improved f...

Influence of crystalline titanium oxide layer smoothness on the performance of inverted organic bilayer solar cells

Due to the small exciton diffusion length in organic materials, the donor-acceptor heterointerface in simple bilayer solar cells must be placed in close proximity to the bottom electrode. This makes great demands on the planarity of the base layer, since a non-uniform topography can cause adverse shorting through overlying layers. We fabricated indium tin oxide (ITO)/titanium oxide (TiOx)/fullerene (C60)/cyanine dye/molybdenum oxide (MoO3)/silver (Ag) solar cells with TiOx layers deposited via sputtering, coated from a nanoparticle suspension or prepared via a sol-gel process. A power conversion efficiency of 3.7% was measured when using a smooth sol-gel derived TiOx film.

Improved open-circuit voltage in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells with high work function transparent electrodes

Hydrogenated indium oxide (IOH) is implemented as transparent front contact in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells, leading to an open circuit voltage VOC enhanced by ∼20u2009mV as compared to reference devices with ZnO:Al (AZO) electrodes. This effect is reproducible in a wide range of contact sheet resistances corresponding to various IOH thicknesses. We present the detailed electrical characterization of glass/Mo/CIGS/CdS/intrinsic ZnO (i-ZnO)/transparent conductive oxide (TCO) with different IOH/AZO ratios in the front TCO contact in order to identify possible reasons for the enhanced VOC. Temperature and illumination intensity-dependent current-voltage measurements indicate that the dominant recombination path does not change when AZO is replaced by IOH, and it is mainly limited to recombination in the space charge region and at the junction interface of the solar cell. The main finding is that the introduction of even a 5u2009nm-thin IOH layer at the i-ZnO/TCO interface already results in a step-like increase i...

Controlling ion fluxes during reactive sputter-deposition of SnO2:F

Magnetron sputtering of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) is a scalable deposition method for large-area transparent conducting films used in fenestration, photovoltaics, and other applications. The electrical conductivity of sputtered FTO is, however, lower than that of spray-pyrolized FTO because of the ion damage induced by high energy ions leading to a reduction of the crystal quality in sputtered FTO films. In this study, various ion species present during the reactive sputtering of a metallic tin target in a mixed Ar/O2/CF4 atmosphere are systematically characterized by energy and mass spectrometry, and possible ways of controlling the ion fluxes are explored. Ion energy distribution functions (IEDFs) of the negative ions F− and O− exhibit large peaks at an energy corresponding to the full target voltage. Although the applied partial pressure of CF4 is about 1/30 than that of O2, the obtained IEDFs of F− and O− have comparable peak height, which can be attributed to a higher electronegativity of F. The...

Limits of carrier mobility in Sb-doped SnO2 conducting films deposited by reactive sputtering

Electron transport in Sb-doped SnO2 (ATO) films is studied to unveil the limited carrier mobility observed in sputtered films as compared to other deposition methods. Transparent and conductive ATO layers are deposited from metallic tin targets alloyed with antimony in oxygen atmosphere optimized for reactive sputtering. The carrier mobility decreases from 24 cm2 V−1 s−1 to 6 cm2 V−1 s−1 when increasing the doping level from 0 to 7 at. %, and the lowest resistivity of 1.8 × 10−3u2009Ω cm corresponding to the mobility of 12 cm2 V−1 s−1 which is obtained for the 3 at. % Sb-doped ATO. Temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements and near-infrared reflectance measurements reveal that the carrier mobility in sputtered ATO is limited by ingrain scattering. In contrast, the mobility of unintentionally doped SnO2 films is determined mostly by the grain boundary scattering. Both limitations should arise from the sputtering process itself, which suffers from the high-energy-ion bombardment and yields polycrystalline ...

Performance and Stability of Organic Trimethine Cyanine Dye—C60 Heterojunction Solar Cells

The performance and stability of cyanine dye—C60 heterojunction solar cells were investigated both in the regular and the inverted geometry. While active layers absorption was stable under inert environment (N2), we observed a dependence on cell performances as a function of storage time for the regular geometry. This was attributed to the influence of the coating solvent on the cyanine dye film/buffer layer interface as well as the top electrode/buffer layer interface. Chlorobenzene as solvent and silver as low work function electrode were proposed as good candidates to improve stability. The inverted geometry was found to be another solution for the stability enhancement due to well protected active layers and more stable interfaces.