Efficient semitransparent inverted organic solar cells with indium tin oxide top electrode

Abstract

We reported on highly efficient semitransparent polymer solar cells comprising a transparent sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) top electrode. We used an inverted cell structure with titanium dioxide prepared by atomic layer deposition as electron selective layer and molybdenum oxide (MoO3) as hole extraction layer. Moreover, the MoO3 layer prevents damage to the organic active materials due to the ITO sputtering process. For the semitransparent device, power conversion efficiencies of 1.9% were achieved with a high transmittance of 80% in the red region of the visible spectrum.

Fully Solution-Processed Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with a Silver Nanowire Cathode and a Conducting Polymer Anode

“…Despite their fully solution-processed nature, they are comparable in efficiency to previously reported semitransparent OSCs with ITO, which have been reported to have PCEs in the range 1.9 to 2.5 %. [27][28][29][30][31] The efficiencies also compare well with a very recent report by Guo et al 32 where PCEs of 2.3 % were achieved using AgNWs for both electrodes (although, in contrast to the devices described here, a ternary-blend of P3HT, …”

Transparent Electrodes for Efficient Optoelectronics

“…[111,130] As mentioned earlier, gentle deposition on underlying layers can also be a critical factor in electrode choice and raises questions about the use of well-established physical vapor deposition (PVD) techniques, such as sputtering or pulsed laser deposition for certain applications. Sputter damage, caused by UV radiation and particle bombardment, is a known phenomenon in organic, [16] SHJ, [15] and perovskite [169] solar cells as well as flexible displays. Solutions to overcome such damage include the use of remote plasma sources, [170] the use of gently deposited buffer layers [171] or further improvements to solution-based deposition processes to improve the density and purity of TCO films to achieve high electron mobilities at low temperatures.…”

Semi-transparent polymer solar cells

“…This electrode must be deposited when the absorber layer has already been deposited on the substrate and a nonaggressive deposition procedure needs to be used. Several different options have been considered, such as low-temperature annealed indium tin oxide (ITO), [42][43][44][45][46][47][48] a three-layer architecture combining a dielectric layer, an ultra thin metal layer, and a second dielectric layer, [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] PEDOT, [65][66][67] silver grid, 68 graphene, [69][70][71] carbon nanotubes, 67,72 and silver nanowires (AgNW). [73][74][75][76][77][78] However, the need for a nondestructive deposition technique for the top semi-transparent electrode is probably not the major issue that semi-transparent OPV cells must overcome before becoming an industrially viable solution.…”