Projected Range and Sputter Yield of Ne+ and Ar+ in the Sputtering of Lead and Tin Perovskites

Abstract

Metal halide perovskites have been the subject of intense theoretical and experimental research in recent years due to their huge potential over their silicon based counterparts for tunable optoelectronic applications in high-tech device innovation. The current best perovskite for solar cell applications, with a power conversion efficiency of 22%, methyl ammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3), is toxic due to the presence of lead and is therefore harmful in solar cell applications despite its low concentration in solar cells. Hence, research exploits are geared towards perovskites without lead. Unfortunately, this has taken back the gains in PCEs by about 15%, and a lot is being done for improvement. In this paper, we performed molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations of ion-beam sputtering of lead and tin perovskites to determine differences between the sputtering characteristics of lead perovskite and a lead-substituted perovskite (tin perovskite). Our results show that they both exhibit similar sputtering characteristics of linear projected ion range, and maximum yield around 78° ion incidence.