Effect of Electric Field Treatment on the Performance of Organic Salt Doped Solar Cell

Abstract

High efficiency is one of the characteristics of a good solar cell. The objective of the experiment is to investigate the effect of electric field treatment on the performance of organic salt tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAPF6) doped solar cell with ITO/MEHPPV:PCBM/Al structure where indium tin oxide (ITO) was used as anode, poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEHPPV) as donor, (6,6)-phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as acceptor and aluminium (Al) as cathode. The devices were build by depositing 20 % of TBAPF6 (weight percentage with respect to MEHPPV) doped MEHPPV:PCBM thin film onto the ITO by spin coating technique, and followed by deposition of Al by using electron gun evaporation technique. The performance of the devices was analyzed through the current-voltage (I-V) curve under illumination with a solar simulator at 100 mW/cm2. Electric field treatment was given by applying different constant voltages of 6 V, 8 V and 10 V for 60 s to the devices before the I-V characterization. A device without electric field treatment was also investigated for comparison. The efficiency of the devices increased with constant voltage given and reached an optimum value at treated voltage of 8 V. The optimum device exhibited the highest efficiency of 0.16% with short circuit current density of 0.88 mA/cm2, open circuit voltage of 0.60 V and fill factor of 30%.