well-established state-of-the-art devices such as silicon heterojunction solar cells and inorganic and organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and organic solar cells. [5][6][7][8] There are also many examples of TCOs in new approaches that simultaneously require semitransparency and flexibility, such as semitransparent conductors, field-effect transistors, thermal shields, photo-detectors, and vertical transistors. [9][10][11][12][13][14] PSCs have attracted much interest since their onset in 2009 due to rapidly-increasing power conversion efficiencies (currently above 25% for small area cells). The perovskite layer and any adjacent charge transport layers can be fabricated in many ways using either solution-based processes or vacuum-assisted deposition. Vacuum-based deposition has the advantage of better control over the film thickness and is an additive method, moreover, it is a widely employed method of production of the before mentioned opto-electronic devices. [15,16] Despite the benefits and promising perspectives of using TCOs in optoelectronics, the development of organic/TCO (TCO on top of organic) bi-layer structures is still a non-trivial challenge because of the generally harsh processing conditions involved in the deposition of the TCO layers. [17] For both lab-and industrial-scale deposition of TCO, magnetron sputtering is the most widespread technique. It is a vacuumbased process that employs direct current or radio frequency to excite a carrier gas (most commonly Ar) into a high kinetic energy plasma which bombards a target material, resulting in the transfer of fragments from the target to substrates positioned above it. However, the accelerated particles, together with side phenomena such as plasma luminescence and processing-induced heat, can easily damage soft organic semiconductor layers, leading to increased leakage current, as well as reduced efficiency and a lower lifetime of the optoelectronic device. [18,19] To overcome this limitation, a protective buffer layer is deposited prior to the TCO deposition. [17] Also, many efforts were proposed to minimize damages of sputtering deposition on buffer-layer-free stacks by lowering the power density threshold by changes in power, target to substrate distance, sputtering gas, and process pressure, [20][21][22][23][24] but at the expense of longer processing times. [22,[25][26][27][28][29] Among these reports, the most efficient buffer-layer-free PSC using TCO top-electrode was achieved by Ramos et al. employing a post-annealed ITO sputtered directly onto a thick (290 nm) spiro-OMeTAD hole The deposition of transparent conductive oxides (TCO) usually employs harsh conditions that are frequently harmful to soft/organic underlayers. Herein, successful use of an industrial pulsed laser deposition (PLD) tool to directly deposit indium tin oxide (ITO) films on semitransparent vacuum-deposited perovskite solar cells without damage to the device stack is demonstrated. The morphological, electronic, and optical properties o...

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in solar cells must be optimized to achieve minimum parasitic absorption losses while providing sufficient lateral conductivity. Low contact resistance with the adjacent device layers...

Strain and interactions at grain boundaries during solid-phase crystallization are known to play a significant role in the functional properties of polycrystalline materials. However, elucidating three-dimensional nanoscale grain morphology, kinetics, and strain under realistic conditions is challenging. Here, we image a single-grain growth during the amorphous-to-polycrystalline transition in technologically relevant transparent conductive oxide film of In2O3:Zr with in situ Bragg coherent X-ray diffraction imaging and transmission electron microscopy. We find that the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov theory, which describes the average kinetics of polycrystalline films growth, can be applied to the single grains as well. The quantitative analysis stems directly from imaging results. We elucidate the interface-controlled nature of the single-grain growth in thin films and reveal the surface strains which may be a driving force for anisotropic crystallization rates. Our results bring in situ imaging with coherent X-rays towards understanding and controlling the crystallization processes of transparent conductive oxides and other polycrystalline materials at the nanoscale.

The study of oxygen activation and mobility in CaTi0.9Fe0.1O3−δ was investigated by using the isotopic exchange technique. The thermomechanical and chemical stability of CaTi0.9Fe0.1O3−δ makes it a promising mixed ionic and electronic conducting oxide for catalytic membrane reactors. However, its oxygen flux performance is still lower than that of reference membranes. Two strategies were studied to improve oxygen transport in this perovskite oxide, that is, higher Fe doping and utilization of a dual‐bed system composed of LaMnO3/CaTi0.9Fe0.1O3−δ.