Sputtered SnO2 as an interlayer for efficient semitransparent perovskite solar cells

SnO2 is widely used as the electron transport layer (ETL) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) due to its excellent electron mobility, low processing temperature, and low cost. And the most common way of preparing the SnO2 ETL is spin-coating using the corresponding colloid solution. However, the spin-coated SnO2 layer is sometimes not so compact and contains pinholes, weakening the hole blocking capability. Here, a SnO2 thin film prepared through magnetron-sputtering was inserted between ITO and the spin-coated SnO2 acted as an interlayer. This strategy can combine the advantages of efficient electron extraction and hole blocking due to the high compactness of the sputtered film and the excellent electronic property of the spin-coated SnO2. Therefore, the recombination of photo-generated carriers at the interface is significantly reduced. As a result, the semitransparent perovskite solar cells (with a bandgap of 1.73 eV) based on this double-layered SnO2 demonstrate a maximum efficiency of 17.7% (stabilized at 17.04%) with negligible hysteresis. Moreover, the shelf stability of the device is also significantly improved, maintaining 95% of the initial efficiency after 800-hours of aging.