High‐Efficiency Polymer Tandem Solar Cells with Three‐Terminal Structure

Abstract

Tandem solar cells have the advantage of enhancing the absorption range of polymer solar cells. A three‐terminal tandem cell based on two polymer bulk heterojunctions that have complementary absorption profile is demonstrated. In this device configuration the two subcells are connected in parallel through a common semitransparent metal interlayer and an efficiency of 4.8% with short circuit current of 15.1 mA cm−2 is achieved.

Series vs parallel connected organic tandem solar cells: Cell performance and impact on the design and operation of functional modules

“…Electrically, in contrast to 2T where no lateral conductivity is needed, it should act as an efficient collecting contact for charge carriers from both subcells, while being able to withstand the solution processing of the second subcell and protect the one underneath. In one of the previous works published with this design [8], Sista and co-workers did not use any buffer layer at the front cell to improve electron charge injection/collection at this electrode. Moreover, they used a vacuum deposited buffer layer of V 2 O 5 as a hole collecting layer for the back cell at the intermediate/ common electrode.…”

“…This photocurrent matching criterion is not easy to achieve in organic solar cells. Three-terminal (3T) tandem devices are an alternative option that eliminates the need of current matching, while potential losses in terms of unbalanced photovoltages would be less dramatic for the performance of the cell [8]. In this manuscript we compare both approaches in terms of device performance, design and materials characterization.…”

Efficient Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells Using a Transparent Silver Electrode and Four-Terminal Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Device Exploration

“…However, the strict requirement of current matching constrains the bandgaps of the top and bottom cells, which limits the design flexibility and makes efficiency improvement more difficult. One approach is the three-terminal structures, in which two subcells are connected in parallel through a transparent conducting interlayer that acts as a common electrode to the two subcells [14]. In this structure, each material level must provide the same voltage and we can say that they are voltage matched, which is less restrictive than the current limitation of the two-terminal structures [15].…”

“…Simultaneously, the Si solar cells have dominated the photovoltaic markets for a long time, and the PCE record of the single-junction Si solar cell has reached 26.6% [8], but the relatively high manufactur-ing cost limits their wider applications. In recent years, the perovskite/Si tandem solar cells [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] have attracted increasing interest as they possess great commercial possibility in fabricating high-performance solar cells via the cost-effective pathway.…”

Incremental optimization in donor polymers for bulk heterojunction organic solar cells exhibiting high performance

“…27,28,45 In this context, tandem solar cell devices, which consists of two or more solar cells connected in series or parallel, could be a promising solution. 28,[96][97][98] The connection between the two devices is achieved using a recombination layer, an optically transparent layer that facilitate the alignment of quasi-Fermi levels of the acceptor of the first cell with the donor of the second cell while offering minimal resistance (Fig. 11).…”