Overcoming interface losses in organic solar cells by applying low temperature, solution processed aluminum-doped zinc oxide electron extraction layers

Stubhan T, Litzov I, Li N, Salinas Batallas M, Steidl M, Sauer G, Forberich K, Matt G, Halik M, Brabec C (2013)


Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2013

Journal

Book Volume: 1

Pages Range: 6004-6009

Volume: 1

Issue: 19

Journal Issue: 19

URI: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2013/ta/c3ta10987a#!divAbstract

DOI: 10.1039/c3ta10987a

Abstract

Intrinsic zinc oxide (ZnO) is widely used as an electron extraction layer (EEL) for inverted polymer solar cells. Despite the excellent device performance, a major drawback for large area production is its low conductivity. Using microscopic simulations, we derived a technically reasonable threshold value of 10−3 S cm−1 for the conductivity required to overcome transport limitations. For conductivity values typical for ZnO we observed the interface layer thickness restriction at only a few tens of nanometers, either as a fill factor drop due to serial resistance, eventually accompanied by a second diode behavior, or by the need for light soaking. Higher conductive aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO), which was introduced earlier, meets the desired conductivity threshold, however, at the cost of high temperature processing. High annealing temperatures (>150 °C) significantly improve the electrical properties of ZnO, but prohibit processing on plastic substrates or organic active layers. Here we report on AZO layers from a sol–gel precursor, which has been already reported to give sufficiently high conductivities at lower processing temperatures (<150 °C). We investigate the influence of different precursor compositions on the electrical properties of the thin films and their performance in inverted poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) solar cells. Low temperature AZO layers with thicknesses up to 680 nm maintained comparable performance to devices with thin AZO layers.

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APA:

Stubhan, T., Litzov, I., Li, N., Salinas Batallas, M., Steidl, M., Sauer, G.,... Brabec, C. (2013). Overcoming interface losses in organic solar cells by applying low temperature, solution processed aluminum-doped zinc oxide electron extraction layers. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 1(19), 6004-6009. https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ta10987a

MLA:

Stubhan, Tobias, et al. "Overcoming interface losses in organic solar cells by applying low temperature, solution processed aluminum-doped zinc oxide electron extraction layers." Journal of Materials Chemistry A 1.19 (2013): 6004-6009.

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