Atomically thin films offer potential for unimagined properties

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The new star for photovoltaics could be perovskite solar cells. Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition, or SALD technology for short, offers the potential to improve their properties in such a way that perovskite cells become suitable for applications. But promising applications are also emerging for batteries and electronic applications.

Tests are carried out on an SALD system, an employee holds a coating sample in a gripping device.
SALD technology can be used to deposit layers that are only a few atomic layers thick in a vacuum. This offers the potential for large increases in performance in solar cells, batteries and other fields of application.

Dutch technology hotbed SALD BV has begun international shipments of "Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition" (SALD) equipment for perovskite solar cells. Perovskite minerals are considered a new star in the solar cell sky because they are inexpensive, easy to process and efficient, but stability often leaves much to be desired. An atom-thin coating, as achievable with SALD technology, is expected to make the cells much more robust. The global market for perovskite solar cells is forecast to exceed $2 billion by 2027. Before the market grows, however, there is still the challenge of moving the cells from today's laboratory environment to industrial mass production. The SALD systems currently being delivered are being used to prepare for this mass production using the roll-to-roll (R2R) process. This involves unrolling a flexible starting material, imprinting or printing a structure on it, and rolling it up again. In combination with SALD technology, it is possible to print nano-thin coatings with specific properties and functions onto the roll. The R2R process is particularly well suited for cost-effective mass production on a large scale. For a long time, the necessary proportion of lead in perovskites as a solar cell material was problematic because this is prohibited under the EU's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directives. Although it is possible to replace the lead with tin, tin gradually oxidizes, causing the perovskite's crystal structure to be lost. It is precisely this oxidation that SALD technology is designed to prevent in order to ensure long-term stability. SALD has developed Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition, a patented process it says is unique in the world for applying coatings as thin as a single atom on an industrial scale. The company believes that these atomic coatings will have the potential to revolutionize entire industries, including the manufacture of battery cells for cars and smartphones, the textile industry, polymer electronics (organic computer chips), the solar energy industry and the packaging industry.

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