Novel Physical Vapor Deposition Approach to Hybrid Perovskites: Growth of MAPbI3 Thin Films by RF-Magnetron Sputtering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel RF-magnetron sputtering method for depositing high-quality CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) perovskite thin films, offering precise control over film properties and enabling scalable manufacturing for advanced photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices.

Contribution

It introduces an industry-compatible vapor-phase deposition technique for MAPbI3 films, overcoming limitations of solution methods and enabling new device architectures.

Findings

Films are single-phase with minimal unreacted PbI2.

Surface coverage and thickness are controllable from <200 nm to >3 μm.

Optical properties are comparable to solution-processed films.

Abstract

Solution-based methods represent the most widespread approach used to deposit hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite films for low-cost but efficient solar cells. However, solution-process techniques offer limited control over film morphology and crystallinity, and most importantly do not allow sequential film deposition to produce perovskite-perovskite heterostructures. Here the successful deposition of CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPI) thin films by RF-magnetron sputtering is reported, an industry-tested method to grow large area devices with precisely controlled stoichiometry. MAPI films are grown starting from a single-target made of CH3NH3I (MAI) and PbI2. Films are single-phase, with a barely detectable content of unreacted PbI2, full surface coverage and thickness ranging from less than 200 nm to more than 3 {\mu}m. Light absorption and emission properties of the deposited films are comparable to as-grown solution-processed MAPI films. The development of vapor-phase deposition methods is of interest to advance perovskite photovoltaic devices with the possibility of fabricating perovskite multijunction solar cells or multicolor bright light-emitting devices in the whole visible spectrum.