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Applied Physics Letters / Volume 100 / Issue 1 / ORGANIC ELECTRONICS AND PHOTONICS
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Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 013306 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3663860 (3 pages)

Impact of unbalanced charge transport on the efficiency of normal and inverted solar cells

J. D. Kotlarski1 and P. W. M. Blom1,2

1Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
2TNO/Holst Centre, High Tech Campus 31, P.O. Box 8550, 5605 KN Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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(Received 2 August 2011; accepted 19 October 2011; published online 5 January 2012; corrected 17 January 2012)

In a normal solar cell, most charge carriers are generated close to the anode, such that electrons have to travel a longer distance as compared to the holes. In an inverted solar cell, holes have to travel a longer distance. We use a combined optical and electronic model to simulate the effect of unbalanced transport on the efficiency of normal and inverted single and tandem solar cells. When the electrons are ten times more mobile than the holes, the efficiency for a single cell with a thickness of 250 nm drops from 7.5% to 4.5% when changing from a normal to an inverted structure. For opposite mobility ratio, the inverted structure clearly outperforms the normal structure.

© 2012 American Institute of Physics

EDITORIALLY RELATED

  1. Publisher's Note: “Impact of unbalanced charge transport on the efficiency of normal and inverted solar cells” [Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 013306 (2012)]
    J. D. Kotlarski et al.
    Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 079901 (2012)APPLAB000100000007079901000001

RELATED DATABASES

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KEYWORDS, PACS, and IPC

Keywords

anodes, solar cells

PACS

  • 88.40.hj

    Efficiency and performance of solar cells

International Patent Classification (IPC)

  • H01L27/142

    Energy conversion devices

  • H01L31/04

    Adapted as conversion devices

  • H02N6/00

    Generators in which light radiation is directly converted into electrical energy

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3663860

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0003-6951 (print)  
1077-3118 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

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Figures (click on thumbnails to view enlargements)

FIG.1
(Color online) Optical absorption rate Gexc showing the absorption profile of two 100 nm thick active layers in normal (a) and inverted (b) single device structures. X denotes the distance from the boundary between the active layer and the reflective electrode. Note the small shift of the absorption profile for the two different device structures.

FIG.1 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.2
(Color online) Power conversion efficiency η for different electron and hole mobility ratios μe/μh of normal and inverted single device structures for an active layer thickness L of 100 nm (a) and 250 nm (b). In (b) there is an additional set of simulated data for inverted devices with a less reflective printed and subsequently sintered Ag electrode. Note that the performance difference between normal and inverted devices for unbalanced charge transport is significantly bigger for 250 nm thick devices than 100nm thick ones.

FIG.2 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.3
(Color online) Optimized power conversion efficiency ηmax for different electron and hole mobility ratios μe/μh of normal and inverted tandem device structures. Note that for μe/μh = 0.001 and 1000 the difference in ηmax for normal and inverted device structures is significantly smaller than for single devices.

FIG.3 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint



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