Surface plasmon enhanced infrared absorption in P3HT-based organic solar cells: the effect of infrared sensitizer (Presentation Recording)

We have theoretically and experimentally investigated the effects of Ag-grating electrode on the performance of polymer:fullerene based bulk heterojunction organic solar cells. First, an integrated numerical model has been developed, which is capable of describing both the optical and the electrical properties simultaneously. The Ag-grating patterned back electrode was then designed to enhance the absorption in sub-bandgap region of P3HT:PCBM binary devices. Laser interference lithography and metal lift-off technique were adopted to realize highly-uniform and large-area nanograting patterns. We measured almost 5 times enhancement of the external quantum efficiency at the surface plasmon resonance wavelength. However, the overall improvement in power conversion efficiency was not significant due to the low intrinsic absorption of active layer in this sub-bandgap region. We, then, investigated about the effect of surface plasmon on the ternary device of P3HT:Si-PCPDTBT:ICBA. It was demonstrated that the infrared absorption by the Si-PCPDTBT sensitizer can be substantially enhanced by matching the surface plasmon resonance to the sensitizer absorption band. Besides, we also observed an additional enhancement in the visible range which is due to the scattering effect of the gratings. An overall short-circuit current enhancement of up to 40% was predicted numerically. We have then fabricated the device by the lamination technique and observed a 30% increase in the short circuit current. Plasmon enhancement of sensitized organic solar cell presents a promising pathway to high-efficiency, broadband-absorbing polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunction organic solar cells.