Inverted organic solar cells with non-clustering bathocuproine (BCP) cathode interlayers obtained by fullerene doping

Jafari, Fatemeh; Patil, Bhushan R.; Mohtaram, Fatemeh; Cauduro, André L.  Fernandes; Rubahn, Horst-Günter; Behjat, Abbas; Madsen, Morten

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46854-w

Inverted organic solar cells with non-clustering bathocuproine (BCP) cathode interlayers obtained by fullerene doping

Journal Article · Thu Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46854-w· OSTI ID:1624481

Jafari, Fatemeh ^[1]; Patil, Bhushan R. ^[2]; Mohtaram, Fatemeh ^[3]; Cauduro, André L. Fernandes ^[4]; Rubahn, Horst-Günter ^[2]; Behjat, Abbas ^[5]; ^[2]

Univ. of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg (Denmark). Mads Clausen Inst. SDU NanoSYD; Yazd Univ., Yazd (Iran). Faculty of Physics. Atomic and Molecular Groups; DOE/OSTI
Univ. of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg (Denmark). Mads Clausen Inst. SDU NanoSYD
Univ. of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg (Denmark). Mads Clausen Inst. SDU NanoSYD; Yazd Univ., Yazd (Iran). Faculty of Physics. Atomic and Molecular Groups; Isfahan Univ., Isfahan (Iran). Dept. of Textile Engineering
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry. National Center for Electron Microscopy
Yazd Univ., Yazd (Iran). Faculty of Physics. Atomic and Molecular Groups

Bathocuproine (BCP) is a well-studied cathode interlayer in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices, where it for standard device configurations has demonstrated improved electron extraction as well as exciton blocking properties, leading to high device efficiencies. For inverted devices, however, BCP interlayers has shown to lead to device failure, mainly due to the clustering of BCP molecules on indium tin oxide (ITO) surfaces, which is a significant problem during scale-up of the OPV devices. In this work, we introduce C70 doped BCP thin films as cathode interlayers in inverted OPV devices. We demonstrate that the interlayer forms smooth films on ITO surfaces, resulting from the introduction of C70 molecules into the BCP film, and that these films possess both improved electron extraction as well exciton blocking properties, as evidenced by electron-only devices and photoluminescence studies, respectively. Importantly, the improved cathode interlayers leads to well-functioning large area (100 mm2) devices, showing a device yield of 100%. This is in strong contrast to inverted devices based on pure BCP layers. These results are founded by the effective suppression of BCP clustering from C70, along with the electron transport and exciton blocking properties of the two materials, which thus presents a route for its integration as an interlayer material towards up-scaled inverted OPV devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1624481

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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