Partitioning of the organic layers for the fabrication of high efficiency organic photovoltaic devices

Lateral partitioning of hole extraction layer with insulating walls improved the power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaic device. When the conductivity of the hole extraction layer is low, no improvement is obtained by partitioning. However, when the conductivity is high, a significant improvement was obtained in the partitioned cells, showing the estimated power conversion efficiency of 4.58% compared to the 3.54% of the single cell structure. This improvement, carefully corrected by masking at measurement, could be explained by the reduction of series resistance. Although accurate estimation of device area at partitioned device might be difficult, its effectiveness on the properties of large area organic photovoltaic device is clear, as shown in the result of 1 cm(2)-size cell with the same manner. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.