Effect of variation in Temperature, Band gap and Thickness of Active Layer on Efficiency of Organic Solar Cell

Abstract

— The virtual simulation of organic solar cell is carried in General purpose Photovoltaic Device Model (GPVDM) software. In this work performance of Organic solar cell is investigated. Organic solar cell is composed of 3-hexyl thiophene (P3HT:PCBM) a polymer as an active layer. The poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxy thiophene) poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is added as an electron blocking layer and Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) film is used as top layer because of its high conductivity and very low resistance to transmission of light in visible range. GPVDM is used for light harvesting device simulations. It works on basis of Poisson’s Equations to equate the device internal parameters that may be electrical or optical. Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) formulations are used to calculate recombination and carrier trapping or mobility. In this study the temperature, band gap and active layer thickness is studied, how they affect the performance of organic solar cell. Variation in temperature inversely affects the efficiency. With increase in Band Gap efficiency also increase till band gap reaches 1.6eV, moreover increase in band gap increases efficiency but open circuit voltage value gets negative. The optimum value of active layer we got is 20nm which gives high efficiency.