The FDTD-based study of the impact of cylindrical aluminum nanoparticles on organic solar cells

Abstract

The present study deals with the effect of the presence of cylindrical aluminum nanoparticles on the parameters of short circuit current density and absorption in the active layer of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM/ZnO/Al organic solar cell by means of the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. The nanoparticles are located in a hexagonal pattern inside the P3HT:PCBM layer and on its border with ZnO. During the simulation, the AM1.5 standard sun spectral pattern has been used in the spectral range of 300-1200 nm. Calculations have shown that the presence of nanoparticles causes a considerable improvement in the values of the parameters. This increase is especially noticeable in the range of high wavelengths. Given the results, when the nanoparticle height is changed, the optimal thickness is also changed, where the short circuit current density and the absorption have the highest values, in a way that at the heights of 50, 100 and 150 nm for nanoparticles, the P3HT:PCBM layer is optimal in the thicknesses of 150, 200 and 250 nm. These results are independent of the radius of nanoparticles. Comparison of calculation results in different conditions shows that both the short circuit current density and the absorption will have the highest values for 150 nm thickness of P3HT:PCBM layer and for nanoparticles with 50 nm height.