Tailoring Nickel Oxide Thin Films: Comparative Study of Oxidizing Agents in Thermal and Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition

Hidrogo-Rico, Mario Alberto ; Nedev, Nicola ; Horley, Paul ; Mendívil, María Isabel ; Castillo-Saenz, Jhonathan ; Martínez-Guerra, Edgar ; Juarez-Perez, Emilio J. ; Aguirre-Tostado, Francisco Servando ; Susarrey-Arce, Arturo ; Martínez-Guerra, Eduardo

Resumen: Thermal atomic layer deposition (TALD) and plasma atomic layer deposition (PALD) were used for producing thin NiOx films from nickel(II) acetylacetonate Ni(acac)2, employing different oxidizing agents (deionized water H2O, ozone O3, and molecular oxygen O2). The films were deposited at 300 °C (TALD) and 220 °C (PALD) over glass substrates; their physical and chemical properties were considerably influenced by the choice of oxidizing agents. In particular, ALD(H2O) samples had a low growth per cycle (GPC) and a high concentration of defects. The best NiOx parameters were achieved with PALD(O2), featuring high GPC (0.07 nm/cycle), high optical transparency in the visible region, electrical resistivity (1.18 × 104 Ω·cm), good carrier concentration (8.82 × 1013 cm–3), and common mobility (5.98 cm2/V·s). The resulting NiOx films are polycrystalline and homogeneous in thickness and composition. According to ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), work function φ and the valence band maximum EV can be tuned by the choice of the coreactant employed, with variations of up to ∼1 eV between TALD and PALD synthesis. Our results suggest that PALD permits one to achieve a better energy band alignment of NiOx and CsFAMAPbBrI perovskite, which is promising for solar cell applications.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.4c06606

Año: 2024

Publicado en: ACS OMEGA 10, 1 (2024), 422-438
ISSN: 2470-1343

Factor impacto JCR: 4.3 (2024)

Categ. JCR: CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 81 / 239 = 0.339 (2024) - Q2 - T2

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.773 - Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Chemistry (miscellaneous) (Q2)

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)