The deposition of NiO thin films by DC sputtering technique and their optoelectronic applications

In this study, NiO thin films were deposited on glass and Si substrates using DC sputtering technique. NiO thin films deposited at different thicknesses were annealed at various temperatures ranging from room temperature to 330°C for 30 minutes. After annealing the electrical, optical and structural measurements were carried out. Following the analysis of the measurements, the NiO was used as a HTL to construct and optimize the cell structure FTO/TiO2/Cs4CuSb2Cl12/NiO/Au in the SCAPS program, and it was compared with the cell structure FTO/TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3/NiO/Au. Optimizations for the absorber layer and HTL were performed for parameters such as thickness, defect density, mobility, absorption coefficient, and capture cross section. Different materials were used as HTLs instead of NiO. Subsequently, CuSbS2/NiO and CNTS/NiO were utilized as HTL in the FTO/TiO2/Cs4CuSb2Cl12/HTL1/HTL2/Au cell structure. As a result, the average reflectance on the silicon surface (380-1000 nm) was reduced from approximately 39% to 8.72%. The highest optimum cell efficiency values obtained were 19.84% for the cell with Cs4CuSb2Cl12 as the absorber layer, 21.83% for the cell with CH3NH3PbI3 as the absorber layer, and 19.95% for the cell with the CNTS/NiO double HTL.