Modification of silver anode and cathode for a top-illuminated organic photovoltaic device

Abstract

We have demonstrated a top-illuminated organic photovoltaic device with a thick Ag anode and a thin Ag cathode capped with an α-naphthylphenylbiphenyl diamine (NPB) thin film. The surface of the Ag anode was oxidized by UV–ozone which improved the carrier collection and reduced the exciton quenching. Compared with the control device with an indium tin oxide anode, a 15.59 times reduction in the serial resistance and a 1.72 times increase in the shunt resistance were observed with a fill factor of 0.61 in such a device. The NPB capping layer not only improved the light transmission from the semitransparent cathode, but also hindered the formation of Ag island growth and thereby improved the device stability.

Spatially resolved photocurrent measurements of organic solar cells: Tracking water ingress at edges and pinholes

“…While aluminium is a common cathode in conventional device designs, inverted device designs typically use a silver cathode. Although silver also oxidises, oxides of silver are electrically conductive and have even been used as interfacial layers to improve performance in OPV devices [31,32]. Despite the absence of severe degradation, we have found that LBIC measurements can still be used to track the ingress of water in devices with a silver cathode.…”

Roughness characterization of silver oxide anodes for use in efficient top-illuminated organic solar cells

“…10 nm Ag film possesses a higher average transmittance. A severe transmittance dip happened at 430 nm may be resulted from the enhanced scattering of Ag clusters under plasmonic resonance, which implied the film formation is discontinuous [22]. Corresponding to its I-V curve in inset of Fig.…”

“…Thin Ag film was reported to be transparent electrode due to its good conductivity and high transmittance in visible band [18,22]. However, it is a challenge to form a stable, continuous, conductive and transparent thin Ag film.…”

“…1, the copper phthalocyanine (CuPc), fullerene (C 60 ), bathocuproine (BCP), Ag cathode and naphthylphenylbiphenyl diamine (NPB) were deposited with thickness of 20, 40, 7, 12.5 and 40 nm in sequence [22]. In cases where CuPc acted as donor, C 60 was used as acceptor and BCP was used as the hole blocking layer and buffer layer to prevent cathode quenching [23].…”

Effects of Anodic Buffer Layer in Top-Illuminated Organic Solar Cell with Silver Electrodes

“…In our previous reports [24,25], we used Ag film as the anode and cathode to obtain an efficient top-illuminated organic photovoltaic (TOPV) device. However, many studies indicated that metal-induced exciton quenching degrades the number of excitons by nonradiative energy transfer to the metal [26][27][28].…”