Light Trapping in Inverted Organic Photovoltaics With Nanoimprinted ZnO Photonic Crystals

Abstract

Zinc oxide photonic crystal (ZnO PC) formed via facile nanoimprinting was employed on the ZnO electron selective layer of inverted organic photovoltaics (OPV). Optimized inverted OPV fabricated with these highly ordered periodic structures provided effective light trapping, which resulted in increased incident light absorption in the active layer. Consequently, OPVs with the ZnO PC layers show a 23% current density improvement compared with OPVs with planar ZnO layer. Finite-difference timedomain simulation studies show that the electric field intensity is significantly higher in the active layer for devices with ZnO PC structures in comparison with reference devices with planar ZnO electron selective layer. Nanoimprinted ZnO PC is, thus, a viable method for light absorption and efficiency enhancement in OPVs. Index Terms-Organic photovoltaics (OPV), photonic crystal (PC), zinc oxide (ZnO). A. Nirmal, W. Jianxiong, K. Dev, and X. Sun are with the LUMINOUS! Center

Review of GaN/ZnO Hybrid Structures Based Materials and Devices

“…The time domain simulation of the finite difference study showed that the electric field intensity was significantly higher in the active layer for devices with ZnO PC structures in comparison with reference devices with planar ZnO electron selective layer [126]. The nano imprinted ZnO PC is, thus, a viable method for the light absorption and the efficiency enhancement in OPVs [126]. The study's result showed that the PCs embedded in the electron selective layer of the OPV lead to the enhancement of the current density by virtue of field localization.…”

“…Consequently, the OPVs with the ZnO PC layers showed a 23% current density improvement compared with OPVs with planar ZnO layer [126]. The time domain simulation of the finite difference study showed that the electric field intensity was significantly higher in the active layer for devices with ZnO PC structures in comparison with reference devices with planar ZnO electron selective layer [126]. The nano imprinted ZnO PC is, thus, a viable method for the light absorption and the efficiency enhancement in OPVs [126].…”

“…The study of the ZnO photonic crystal (PC) formed via facile nanoimprinting employed on the ZnO electron selective layer of inverted organic photovoltaics (OPV) was reported by Nirmal et al [126]. The optimized inverted OPV fabricated with these highly ordered periodic structures provided effective light trapping, which resulted in increased incident light absorption in the active layer [126]. Consequently, the OPVs with the ZnO PC layers showed a 23% current density improvement compared with OPVs with planar ZnO layer [126].…”

“…The optimized inverted OPV fabricated with these highly ordered periodic structures provided effective light trapping, which resulted in increased incident light absorption in the active layer [126]. Consequently, the OPVs with the ZnO PC layers showed a 23% current density improvement compared with OPVs with planar ZnO layer [126]. The time domain simulation of the finite difference study showed that the electric field intensity was significantly higher in the active layer for devices with ZnO PC structures in comparison with reference devices with planar ZnO electron selective layer [126].…”

“…The study's result showed that the PCs embedded in the electron selective layer of the OPV lead to the enhancement of the current density by virtue of field localization. The optimized OPVs with these PC structures can effectively trap the incident light and increase the absorption in the active layer [126]. The ZnO PC provided an enhanced performance [126].…”