2025/11/11 by Eva Horynová, Jakub Holovský, Lucie Landová +9 · 1 voice
Energy · Engineering · #Perovskite Materials and Applications #Thin-Film Transistor Technologies #TiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells
paper · doi:10.1016/j.vacuum.2025.114812
openalex created_date 2025/11/11 · openalex publication_date 2025/11/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Nickel oxide (NiO x ) has gained attention as a promising inorganic hole transport layer for perovskite solar cells due to its wide bandgap, high transparency, and stability. However, tuning of band alignment by an extra dipole layer is necessary to achieve high efficiencies. Our predictive simulations suggest that NiO x bandgap tuning can also improve solar cell performance. Motivated by these findings, this study experimentally investigates NiO x films with different bandgap fabricated using pulsed laser deposition under varying deposition conditions, including oxygen pressure, substrate temperature and laser frequency. Our outcomes show that mainly the deposition temperature significantly influences the chemical composition, optical properties, and defect states in the NiO x films, lattice constants and morphology as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photothermal deflection spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Experimentally, FA 0.83 Cs 0.17 Pb(I 0.6 Br 0.4 ) 3 mixed halide perovskite solar cells were fabricated on NiO x substrates prepared under varying oxygen pressures and pulse numbers, achieving a maximum power conversion efficiency of approximately 8%. This demonstrates that NiO x deposited by pulsed laser deposition, when properly tuned, is a promising candidate for an efficient hole transport layer in perovskite-based photovoltaics.