Integrated optoelectronic model for organic solar cells based on the finite element method including the effect of oblique sunlight incidence and a non-ohmic electrode contact

Abstract

We present an integrated optoelectronic model for organic solar cells (OSCs) based on the finite element method, which can numerically simulate the optical and electrical properties in the same calculation domain. In the optical model, the spatial distribution of optical absorption is calculated with respect to the incidence angle and light polarization. A glass factor is introduced to include the incoherent light interaction inside the thick glass substrate. In the electrical model, the current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics can be calculated by self-consistently solving the combined equations based on the Onsager–Braun charge-transfer exciton dissociation, drift-diffusion carrier transport, and non-ohmic contact models. The calculation results of the carrier density, the electric potential, and the electric field in the active layer are compared between the ohmic and non-ohmic contact models at the electrode–organic interface. We numerically calculate the angular and polarization dependences of the short-circuit current density, the open-circuit voltage, and the output electric power density at the spectral irradiance of the AM 1.5 spectrum. The calculation results are well matched with the experimental results at various incidence angles and light polarizations. The application of the proposed integrated optoelectronic model to OSCs will not be restricted to one-dimensional planar structures and can be extended to nonplanar or surface-textured structures.