Study of buffer layer thickness on bulk heterojunction solar cell

We studied the effect of the buffer layer (molybdenum-oxide (MoO3)) thickness on the performance of organic solar cell based on blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester fullerene derivative (PCBM). The thickness of MoO3 was varied from 1 nm to 30 nm for optimization of device performance. The photocurrent-voltage and impedance spectroscopy were measured under dark and AM1.5G solar simulated illumination of 100 mW/cm2 for exploring the role of the buffer layer thickness on carrier collection at an anode. The MoO3 thickness of the optimized device (efficiency approximately 3.7%) was found to be in the range of 5 approximately 10 nm. The short-circuit current and the shunt resistance decrease gradually for thicker MoO3 layer over 5 nm. The device can be modeled as the combination of three RC parallel circuits (each one for the active layer, buffer layer and interface between the buffer layer and the active layer) in series with contact resistance (Rs approximately 60 ohm).