Characteristics of Sputtered ZnO Thin Films for an Inverted Organic Solar Cell

Several research groups have claimed high energy conversion efficiency in organic solar cells. However, it still has low efficiency and is unstable, because organic materials are easily oxidized by atmospheric humidity and UV light. In this work, ZnO thin film as the blocking layer attributed to the interference of the injection of the hole from the P3HT and no charge carrier recombination. We obtained the maximum power conversion efficiency of 1.9% under AM 1.5 G spectral illumination of 100 MWcm(-2), when we used a ZnO film of 60 nm and the optimized P3HT:PCBM, and Au as the back electrode to solve the reaction problem of Al electrode and to control the work function between the HOMO level of P3HT and the energy level of the metal electrode. Power conversion efficiency of inverted organic solar cell (IOSC) is significantly dependent on the thickness of the ZnO thin film deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering method. Also, the stability of IOSC is measured under ambient conditions.