Improved cathode buffer layer to decrease exciton recombination in organic planar heterojunction solar cells

Bregt Verreet, Pawel E. Malinowski, Bjoern Niesen, David Cheyns, Paul Heremans, Andre Stesmans, Barry P. Rand

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

We show that an advanced cathode buffer design, consisting of bathocuproine/3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic bis-benzimidazole/Ag, increases the short-circuit current of organic planar heterojunction cells and reduces the J-V slope at reverse voltages. We study the physical origin of these effects by measuring reflectivity, voltage dependent external quantum efficiency, and voltage dependent photoluminescence. Our findings suggest that the observed effects are mainly associated with a voltage dependent polaron-induced exciton quenching in the C60 layer. Finally, this improved cathode buffer design is applied to a diindeno[1,2,3-cd:1′,2′,3′-lm]perylene/ C70 based cell, leading to a considerable planar heterojunction efficiency of 5.7%.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number043301
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume102
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 28 2013
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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