Surface Engineering of ZnO Thin Film for High Efficiency Planar Perovskite Solar Cells

Sputtering made ZnO thin film was used as an electron-transport layer in a regular planar perovskite solar cell based on high quality CH₃ NH₃ PbI₃ absorber prepared with a two-step spin-coating. An efficiency up to 15.9% under AM 1.5G irradiation is achieved for the cell based on ZnO film fabricated under Ar working gas. The atmosphere of the sputtering chamber can tune the surface electronic properties (band structure) of the resulting ZnO thin film and therefore the photovoltaic performance of the corresponding perovskite solar cell. Precise surface engineering of ZnO thin film was found to be one of the key steps to fabricate ZnO based regular planar perovskite solar cell with high power conversion efficiency. Sputtering method is proved to be one of the excellent techniques to prepare ZnO thin film with controllable properties.