Optical modeling of bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells based on squarine dye as electron donor

Abstract

The potentiality of a squarine dye (Sq1) for using as electron donor component in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ) has been studied from the optical point of view. The soluble n-type fullerene, (6,6)-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PC61MB) was chosen as acceptor. Optical modelling based on transfer matrix method was carried out to predict and improve photovoltaic performance of a BHJ device with blended Sq1/PC61MB active layer. The dependence of the absorption and the calculated maximum short circuit photocurrent (Jscmax) on the thickness of the active layer (dact), was investigated for two weight ratios of Sq1 and PC61MB. Thus, the optimal dact was calculated to be about 100 nm, which provides an efficient overlapping of the total absorption with solar spectrum in the range between 580 and 900 nm. Besides, it is found that the insertion of ZnO or C60 spacer layer shifts Jscmax peak to lower dact and significantly enhances Jscmax for active layers with dact < 50 nm, which is mainly due to improved light absorption by a factor of 5 to 10. Simultaneously, for dact <100 nm the optical effect of inserted PEDOT:PSS hole transporting layer is negligible.