Electrical Properties of Ultra-thin TiO2 Compact Layer on FTO for Perovskite Solar cells

A TiO2 compact layer or blocking layer plays a crucial role in a hybrid organicinorganic lead halide perovskite solar cell because it can prevent the carrier recombination at the interface of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) and perovskite layers. There are several methods to fabricate this layer such as spray pyrolysis or spin-coating which is solution-based synthesis that is difficult to avoid pinholes in the surface of the blocking layer. In this work, TiO2 blocking layers are fabricated by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering using Ti metallic target with O-2 partial pressure in Ar atmosphere on FTO coated glasses. The controlled parameters for the deposition of TiO2 compact layer are RF power, O-2 partial pressure, and deposition time. The optimization of the TiO2 compact layers are found from the diode I-V characteristics between the TiO2/FTO interfaces. The resistance between the TiO2/FTO interfaces deviates from an ohmic contact towards a diode behavior when the thickness of TiO2 is increased. The thickness of the films is directly measured by surface profilometer. In addition, the UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy is used to observe the optical transmission of the films.