Evaporation Deposition Strategies for All-Inorganic CsPb(I_1–xBr_x)₃ Perovskite Solar Cells: Recent Advances and Perspectives

The preparation route has striking impacts on the morphology and photovoltaic performance of the solar cells, and the development of a feasible preparation strategy to make such a technology applicable to industry is of utmost significance. Compared with solution processing, the vapor deposition strategy has been demonstrated as an effective way to fabricate compact and uniform perovskite thin films with excellent versatility and controllability. While the vast majority of literature emphasizes solution processing as the deposition method for perovskite solar cells (PSCs), vapor-deposited PSCs are closing the performance gap with numerous research reports of efficiencies above 20%. Thus, an in-time review is critical to summarize the fundamentals of vapor-based deposition strategies to evaluate their real potential and put challenges into perspective. Herein, various vapor deposition routes for the preparation of all-inorganic perovskite films and solar cells are thoroughly addressed. Moreover, the critical factors such as deposition temperature, film thickness, substrate temperature, and annealing conditions that impact the film quality and photovoltaic performance of the perovskite are reviewed. In the end, conclusion and future possibilities of the vapor deposition processes are presented, which will offer constructive guidance for the large-scale fabrication of solar cells.