Effects of adjusting nickel pulse count on NiO films prepared by atomic layer deposition

The paper describes the preparation of NiO films using atomic layer deposition (ALD) and analyzes their hole transport properties. During the ALD process, NiO films with varying properties were fabricated by adjusting the number of nickel pulses in the reaction. Various characterization techniques were employed to investigate the morphology, composition, optical, and electrical properties of the films prepared with different numbers of nickel pulses. The study reveals that as the number of Ni pulses increases, the content of Ni metal and Ni(OH)₂ in the NiO films changes, and post-annealing treatment can significantly enhance the performance of the NiO films. Finally, NiO was used as a hole transport layer to successfully fabricate silicon solar cells, resulting in an increase in power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 17.89% to 18.89% compared to untreated cells.