Performance Improvement of Low-Band-Gap Polymer Solar Cells by Optical Microcavity Effect

Author

Shen, Liang ; Yu, Wenjuan ; Long, Yongbing ; Guo, Wenbin ; Meng, Fanxu ; Ruan, Shengping ; Chen, Weiyou

Author_Institution

State Key Lab. on Integrated Optoelectron., Jilin Univ., Changchun, China

Volume

34

Issue

1

fYear

2013

fDate

Jan. 2013

Firstpage

87

Lastpage

89

Abstract

We investigate the performance of the indium tin oxide (ITO)-free low-band-gap polymer solar cells (PSCs) with a WO₃/Ag/WO₃ multilayer as a transparent electrode. For the device with a 60-nm-thick active layer, the efficiency is improved by 26.5% when compared with that of the device with an ITO electrode. The improvement can be attributed to the resonance effect of the microcavity structure occurring between the transparent WO₃ /Ag/WO₃ and top metal electrode. Further investigation based on the incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency spectra test and transfer matrix simulation is performed to expatiate on the effects of the microcavity on the performance of the low-band-gap PSCs with the WO₃/Ag/WO₃ multilayer as the transparent electrode.

Keywords

electrodes; energy gap; indium compounds; microcavities; optical multilayers; polymers; silver; solar cells; tin compounds; tungsten compounds; ITO; ITO electrode; ITO-free low-band-gap polymer solar cells; WO₃-Ag-WO₃; active layer; efficiency 26.5 percent; incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency spectra test; low-band-gap PSC; low-band-gap polymer solar cells; microcavity structure; optical microcavity effect; resonance effect; size 60 nm; top metal electrode; transfer matrix simulation; transparent electrode; Absorption; Electrodes; Indium tin oxide; Microcavities; Photovoltaic cells; Polymers; Indium tin oxide (ITO) free; low band gap; microcavity effect; polymer solar cells (PSCs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2012.2227237

Filename

6381442