RAINBOW Organic Solar Cells: Implementing Spectral Splitting in Lateral Multi-Junction Architectures

While multi-junction geometries have the potential to boost the efficiency of organic solar cells, the experimental gains yet obtained are still very modest. This work proposes an alternative spectral splitting device concept in which various individual semiconducting junctions with cascading bandgaps are laid side by side, thus the name RAINBOW. Each lateral sub-cell receives a fraction of the spectrum that closely matches the main absorption band of the given semiconductor. Here, simulations are used to identify the important material and device properties of each RAINBOW sub-cell. Using the resulting design rules, three systems are selected, with narrow, medium, and wide effective bandgaps, and their potential as sub-cells in this geometry is experimentally investigated. With the aid of a custom-built setup that generates spectrally spread sunlight on demand, the simulations are experimentally validated, showing that this geometry can lead to a reduction in thermalization losses and an improvement in light harvesting, which results in a relative improvement in efficiency of 46.6% with respect to the best sub-cell. Finally, a working proof-of-concept monolithic device consisting of two sub-cells deposited from solution on the same substrate is fabricated, thus demonstrating the feasibility and the potential of the RAINBOW solar cell concept.

Automated summary

This work proposes a novel spectral splitting device concept called RAINBOW, which lays various semiconducting junctions with cascading bandgaps side by side to improve the efficiency of organic solar cells. Simulations and experiments show that this geometry can reduce thermalization losses and improve light harvesting, resulting in a 46.6% relative improvement in efficiency compared to the best sub-cell. A working proof-of-concept monolithic device consisting of two sub-cells deposited from solution on the same substrate is successfully fabricated, demonstrating the feasibility and potential of the RAINBOW solar cell concept.