Title :
Amorphous-Silicon / Polymer Solar Cells and Key Design Rules for Hybrid Solar Cells
Author :
Gowrishankar, Vignesh ; Scully, Shawn R. ; McGehee, Michael D. ; Wang, Qi ; Branz, Howard
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mater. Sci. & Eng., Stanford Univ., CA
Abstract :
Hybrid solar cells combine the advantages of organic and inorganic materials. We report on the fabrication and performance of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)/poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and a-Si:H/poly(2-methoxy-5-(2´-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) solar cells. The a-Si:H/P3HT system is found to be almost as efficient as titania/P3HT systems. However, the a-Si:H/MEH-PPV system exhibits poorer efficiency vis-a-vis a-Si:H/P3HT and titania/MEH-PPV. This is hypothesized to be due to enhanced energy transfer from MEH-PPV to a-Si:H, coupled with inefficient backward hole transfer, due to the small offset between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of MEH-PPV and the valence band edge of a-Si:H, and the extended valence bandtail states in a-Si:H
Keywords :
conducting polymers; elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; organic semiconductors; organic-inorganic hybrid materials; silicon; solar cells; valence bands; HOMO; MEH-PPV; P3HT; Si:H; a-Si:H-poly(3-hexylthiophene); backward hole transfer; energy transfer; highest occupied molecular orbital; hybrid solar cells; hydrogenated amorphous-silicon-polymer solar cell fabrication; inorganic materials; organic materials; poly(2-methoxy-5-(2´-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) solar cells; valence band edge; Absorption; Electrodes; Energy exchange; Excitons; Fabrication; Inorganic materials; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Polymers; Solar power generation;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Waikoloa, HI
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0017-1
Electronic_ISBN :
1-4244-0017-1
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.2006.279419
