Atomic layer deposition of NiO hole-transporting layers for polymer solar cells

NiO is an attractive hole-transporting material for polymer solar cells (PSCs) owing to its excellent stability and electrical/optical properties. This study demonstrates, for the first time, fabrication of uniform, defect-free, and conformal NiO ultra-thin films for use as hole-transporting layers (HTLs) in PSCs by atomic layer deposition (ALD) through optimization of the ALD processing parameters. The morphological, optical, and electrical properties of ALD NiO films were determined to be favorable for their HTL application. As a result, PSCs containing an ALD NiO HTL with an optimized thickness of 4 nm achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.4%, which was comparable to that of a control device with a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy-thiophene): poly(styrene-sulfonate) HTL. The high quality and manufacturing scalability of ALD NiO films demonstrated here will facilitate the adoption of NiO HTLs in PSCs.