International audienceAn original surface passivation technique of indium tin oxide (ITO) used as anode in organic solar cells is proposed. We demonstrate that a thin MoO3 film (3.5 +/- 1 nm) at the interface ITO/organic donor allows improving significantly the devices' performances. The devices are based on the multiheterojunction structure copper phthalocyanine (CuPc)/fullerene (C-60)/aluminum tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) (Alq(3)). The deposition of MoO3 onto ITO improves the charge transfer from CuPc to ITO. The enhancement in the hole collection efficiency in the presence of an oxide layer can be explained in terms of the reduction in the effective barrier against hole transfer from CuPc into the ITO anode. The contact ITO/MoO3/CuPc behaves like a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure, which allows reducing the energy barrier due to the difference between the work function of ITO and the highest occupied molecular orbital of CuPc. It is shown that the optimum MoO3 thickness corresponds to a compromise between an optimum ITO coverage and a sufficient transparency of the trapezoidal barrier for the tunneling of the charge carriers. The MoO3 thin films are discontinuous, and the passivation effect is improved when the oxide thin film is covered by an ultrathin gold film. Such behavior is discussed in the light of band scheme structures after contact and of geometrical considerations
The authors have achieved an efficient organic solar cell based on copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) layer as donor and fullerene (C60) as acceptor. The aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) instead of indium tin oxide (ITO) is used as the anode. An ultrathin gold film is introduced among ZnO:Al, transparent conductor oxide, and the CuPc donor layer. We show that the power conversion efficiency of this cell is enhanced by one order of magnitude compared to that achieved with a ZnO anode without ultrathin gold film. Therefore, the power conversion efficiency of this cell is comparable to that with an ITO anode.
Cu 2 SnS 3 thin film have been synthesized by solid state reaction under vapour sulphur pressure at 530 C, during 6 h, via a sequentially deposited copper and tin layers Cu/Sn/Cu.Sn/Cu/Sn. The structure and the composition were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Electron Probe Micro Analysis (EPMA). X-ray diffraction revealed that as the deposited film crystallizes in the cubic structure and the crystallites exhibit preferential 111 orientation of the grains. Moreover, EPMA analysis confirmed that the obtained film is stoichiometric. The SEM study shows the presence of spherical particles of z100e120 nm diameters. The optical absorption coefficient and band gap of the film were estimated by means of transmission and reflection optical measurements at room temperature. A relatively high absorption coefficient in the range of 10 4 cm À1 was indeed obtained and the band gap value is of the order of 1.1 eV. On the other hand, the electrical conductivity of Cu 2 SnS 3 film prepared in the present experiment is suitable for fabricating a thin film solar cell based on not cheaper and environmental friendly material.
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