Effect of optical intensity distribution on device performances of PTB7-Th:PC71BM-based organic photovoltaic cells

Abstract

Abstract In order to realize high performance of organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), it is indispensable to optimize device structures according to composing materials. In particular, the optical density distribution in stacked layers is one of important factors to enhance the optical absorption within the photoactive layer, resulting in the improved photoconversion efficiency. In this study, we optimized the film thickness of the photoactive layer as a fundamental way to control the optical density distribution. The influence of the photoactive layer thickness on photovoltaic performances of OPVs was first investigated using, poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3-uorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl)] and [6,6]-phenyl C 71 -butyric acid methyl ester blend films in normal and inverted OPV structures, respectively. The short circuit current density (J sc ) showed a peak at the thickness at around 100–120 nm and 80–100 nm in normal and inverted OPVs, respectively. In addition, J sc of inverted OPVs were higher than those of normal OPVs for all the thicknesses. The FF decreased continuously with increasing the thickness in both device structures. The fill factor of normal OPV decreased with increasing thickness more slowly than that of the inverted OPV at the thickness of over than 200 nm. Furthermore, we simulated the optical density distribution in the stacked layers using the algorithm utilized matrix formulas based on Abeles's formulas. The simulated optical intensity distribution as a function of the position and the wavelength is in a good agreement with the experimental spectra of external quantum efficiency. The result indicates a close correspondence between the optical density distribution and the photovoltaic performance. At the optimum photoactive layer thickness of 116 nm in the normal and 76 nm in the inverted OPVs, we obtained the highest PCEs of 9.25 and 10.4%, respectively.