Effective Absorption Enhancement in Small Molecule Organic Solar Cells by Employing Trapezoid Gratings

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that trapezoid gratings significantly enhance optical absorption in small molecule organic solar cells by exciting waveguide and surface plasmon modes, leading to improved electrical performance.

Contribution

The study introduces trapezoid gratings to boost absorption in organic solar cells, combining simulation and experimental validation of efficiency improvements.

Findings

31% increase in short-circuit current

7.7% enhancement in power conversion efficiency

Effective excitation of surface plasmon and waveguide modes

Abstract

We demonstrate the optical absorption has been enhanced in the small molecule organic solar cells by employing trapezoid grating structure. The enhanced absorption is mainly attributed to both waveguide modes and surface plasmon modes, which has been simulated by using finite-difference time-domain method. The simulated results show that the surface plasmon along the semitransparent metallic Ag anode is excited by introducing the periodical trapezoid gratings, which induce high intensity field increment in the donor layer. Meanwhile, the waveguide modes result a high intensity field in acceptor layer. The increment of field improves the absorption of organic solar cells, significantly, which has been demonstrated by simulating the electrical properties. The simulated results exhibiting 31 % increment of the short-circuit current has been achieved in the optimized device, which is supported by the experimental measurement. The power conversion efficiency of the grating sample obtained in experiment exhibits an enhancement of 7.7 %.