Efficiency Enhancement of Organic Solar Cell Via Incorporation of Ag NPs and Moth-Eye-like Structure

Abstract This study investigated a simple strategy for enhancing the efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) by incorporating silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and an antireflection moth-eye (ARM) film. The device structure was composed of a commercially available ARM film/indium tin oxide-coated glass substrate/aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO):Ag NPs/poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT): [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM)/MoO3/Ag. The use of a commercially available ARM film eliminated the complexity of the nanofabrication processes, enabling a simple and practical device fabrication approach. Various concentrations of Ag NPs were incorporated into AZO as an electron transport layer (ETL), and the effects of the ARM film on the device performance at various incidence angles were systematically investigated. The incorporation of both Ag NPs and the ARM film enhanced the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the device by 13.24%, increasing the PCE from 3.40% for the pristine device to 3.85% under normal incidence. The incorporation of Ag NPs improved the device performance primarily by enhancing the charge carrier transport, supplemented by plasmonic effects. The integration of the ARM film further increased the PCE by enhancing light transmission through the substrate. Moreover, the PCE enhancement owing to the presence of the ARM film was pronounced at a high incidence angle of light, which was attributable to the effective suppression of s-polarized light reflection at the air/glass interface. This study demonstrated that incorporating Ag NPs into the ETL, along with adding an ARM film, is an effective strategy for improving the performance of OSCs.