Optimization of hybrid organic/inorganic poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl)/silicon solar cells

Martin Weingarten; Simon Sanders; Dominik Stümmler; Pascal Pfeiffer; Andrei Vescan; Holger Kalisch

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.6.025504

Abstract

In the last years, hybrid organic/silicon solar cells have attracted great interest in photovoltaic research due to their potential to become a low-cost alternative for the conventionally used silicon pn-junction solar cells. This work is focused on hybrid solar cells based on the polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl), which was deposited on n-doped crystalline silicon via spin-coating under ambient conditions. By employing an anisotropic etching step with potassium hydroxide (KOH), the reflection losses at the silicon surface were reduced. Hereby, the short-circuit current density of the hybrid devices was increased by 31%, leading to a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.1% compared to a PCE of 10.7% for the devices without KOH etching. In addition, the contacts were improved by replacing gold with the more conductive silver as top grid material to reduce the contact resistance and by introducing a thin (∼0.5 nm) lithium fluoride layer between the silicon and the aluminum backside contact to improve electron collection and hole blocking. Hereby, the open-circuit voltage and the fill factor of the hybrid solar cells were further improved and devices with very high PCE up to 14.2% have been realized.

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Martin Weingarten, Martin Weingarten, Simon Sanders, Simon Sanders, Dominik Stümmler, Dominik Stümmler, Pascal Pfeiffer, Pascal Pfeiffer, Andrei Vescan, Andrei Vescan, Holger Kalisch, Holger Kalisch, } "Optimization of hybrid organic/inorganic poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl)/silicon solar cells," Journal of Photonics for Energy 6(2), 025504 (18 May 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.6.025504 . Submission:

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