Enhancing performance of perovskite solar cells with efficiency exceeding 21% via a graded-index mesoporous aluminum oxide antireflection coating

Antireflection (AR) film is a widely used technology to enhance the performance of photovoltaic devices that require transparent electrodes in the photovoltaic industry. At present, several AR films including monolayer MgF2 or multilayered composite films, textured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and porous SiO2 have been successfully applied due to their excellent properties. Nevertheless, all of the above-mentioned AR films have some minor drawbacks to overcome, for instance, the cost or thermal durability. Herein, we report a cost-effective and low-temperature method to fabricate a mesoporous aluminum oxide (meso-Al2O3) layer as the AR coating with high thermal durability, which will meet the fabrication condition of various photovoltaic devices. Briefly, the process begins at magnetron sputtering a compact Al2O3 film, which shows no AR effect, followed by a hot water treatment at 80 °C to turn the compact film into a mesoporous film with graded-index and AR effect. The application of meso-Al2O3 AR film enhances the maximum transmittance of our laboratory-used fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) from 84% to 89%, which is in good agreement with our theoretical simulation named graded-index approximation. Taking perovskite solar cells (PSCs) as an example, planar PSCs with meso-Al2O3 AR film deliver excellent photon conversion efficiency of 21.5%, which is higher than that of cells without meso-Al2O3 AR film (20.9%).