Oxygen-Dependent Sputtered NiOx for High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cells and Minimodules

Inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with nickel oxide (NiOx) as the hole transport layer have shown considerable potential for achieving high-performance photovoltaic devices. Adopting industrially compatible deposition technologies is crucial for their commercialization. In this study, we utilize pulsed DC reactive sputtering, an industrially established technique to reproducibly deposit NiOx films. By precisely controlling the oxygen doping ratio during the sputtering process, we systematically explore the intrinsic optical and electronic properties of the NiOx films. Additionally, we investigate the oxygen-dependent interfacial reactions between NiOx and perovskite, and the optimized devices achieve remarkable conversion efficiencies of 23.96% and 21.14% for 1.0 cm2 and 20 cm2 aperture areas, the highest values for large-area PSCs using scalable NiOx deposition. Furthermore, these devices demonstrate excellent operational stability, with negligible efficiency decline when operating under maximum power point tracking for 845 h. The successful implementation of this industrial deposition brings PCSs closer to commercialization.