Highly Efficient and High Peak Transmittance Colorful Semitransparent Organic Solar Cells with Hybrid-Electrode-Mirror Microcavity Structure

Abstract

Microcavity is an efficient approach to manufacture colorful semitransparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) with high color purity by tailoring the transmission spectrum to narrow peaks. However, in this type of colorful semitransparent devices, high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and high peak transmittance are not yet simultaneously achieved. This paper proposes a new type of microcavity structure to achieve colorful ST-OSCs with both high PCE and high peak transmittance, in which a hybrid Au/Ag electrode is used as a mirror and WO3 is used as a spacer layer. First, it is demonstrated that the hybrid Au/Ag electrode mirror brings about an improvement of 7.7 and 5.5% for PCE and peak transmittance, respectively, when compared with those of the reference devices using the Ag electrode mirror. Specifically, the PCE of the optimized devices reaches the satisfactory value of over 9%, and the peak transmittance is over 25%. This value of PCE is the highest one reported so far for the microcavity-based ST-OSCs with the same peak transmittance. Second, it is demonstrated that the second-order resonance of the microcavity can be used to improve the color purity of green ST-OSCs by narrowing the transmission peak, and the combination of the second-order and third-order resonance can be used to construct colorful ST-OSCs with mixed colors. Thus, a novel approach is developed to tune the color of ST-OSCs, which is based on high-order resonance modes of the microcavity.

Optical management in organic photovoltaic devices

“…Compared with the reference device, generated by the blue, green, and red semitransparent devices, the current increased by 32%–34%. Zhong et al 100 designed highly efficient and high peak transmittance colorful semitransparent OSCs with the structure of glass/ITO/ZnO/PTB7‐Th:PC 71 BM/MoO 3 /Au/Ag/WO 3 /Ag. The hybrid Au/Ag electrode acts as a mirror and brings a PCE improvement of about 7.7%.…”

“…(B) Schematic diagram of hybrid‐electrode‐mirror microcavity‐based semitransparent devices and the digital photographs of building captured through the deices with various colors. Reproduced with permission: Copyright 2019, American Chemical Society 100 …”

Recent Progress on Advanced Optical Structures for Emerging Photovoltaics and Photodetectors

“…[ 146 ] Zhong et al embedded ultrathin Au as an interlayer between the active layer and the Ag/WO 3 /Ag structure, resulting in PCEs of up to 9% and values of T MAX in the range 10–25% for various color gamut samples (Figure 4b). [ 147 ] Shafian et al applied solution‐processed TiO 2 –AcAc as the dielectric layer (Figure 4c); [ 148 ] wet‐processing of the dielectric layer contributed to the facile fabrication of their ST‐OPVs.…”

“…b) Reproduced with permission. [ 147 ] Copyright 2019, American Chemical Society. c) Reproduced with permission.…”

Characterization of optical manipulation using microlens arrays depending on the materials and sizes in organic photovoltaics

“…Another strategy to enhance light absorption without synthesizing new photoactive materials or modifying photoactive layer architecture is to induce the microcavity effect in OPVs. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Light can be trapped between two reecting mirrors through the cavity effect. [23][24][25] Similarly, two electrodes, a transparent electrode and a reective metal electrode in OPVs, can trap incident light, which is called the microcavity effect.…”