Abstract
Abstract
The performance of Organic Solar Cells (OSCs) based on a composite photoactive of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and 6,6-phenylC61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as the donor and acceptor electrons, respectively, is examined in this paper through a simulation study. Optical Zinc oxide (ZnO) spacers between the active layer and the Aluminum (Al) cathode contact layer, serving as a hole transport layer (HTL), are compared to the usual configuration without a ZnO spacer in the second device construction. With and without the ZnO optical spacer, we calculate the electric field intensities and generation rates (G) for a range of incident wavelengths. Under AM 1.5 G at 100 mW cm−2 illumination and in the dark, the short-circuit current density (Jsc) is improved by up to 9.47% after adding the ZnO layer as an optical spacer. In addition, there is a gain of up to 11.42% in external quantum efficiency (EQE). Furthermore, the ZnO spacer layer device has a markedly higher incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE), going from 77% in the control device (without ZnO) to 90% with ZnO spacer layer. The numerical simulation results based on the finite element method (FEM) are consistent with the published experimental data.