Nickel Oxide Hole Transport Layer for Perovskite Solar Cells: Preparation via Pulsed Laser Deposition with Simulation and Experimental Insights

Nickel oxide (NiOx) has gained attention as a promising inorganic hole transport layer for perovskite solar cells due to its wide bandgap, high transparency, and stability. Our predictive simulations suggest that NiOₓ bandgap tuning can improve solar cell performance. Motivated by these findings, this study experimentally investigates NiOₓ films fabricated using pulsed laser deposition under varying deposition conditions, including oxygen pressure, substrate temperature and laser frequency. Our outcomes show that mainly the deposition temperature significantly influences the chemical composition, optical properties, and defect states in the NiOx films, lattice constants and morphology as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photothermal deflection spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.