Indium-free bottom electrodes for inverted organic solar cells with simplified cell architectures

Inverted organic bulk heterojunction solar cells employing a multilayer electrode comprising of a thin Ag layer embedded between layers of zinc tin oxide (ZTO) are compared to cells using an indium tin oxide electrode. The In-free ZTO/Ag/ZTO (ZAZ) electrodes exhibit a favorable work function of 4.3 eV and are shown to allow for excellent electron extraction even without a further interlayer. As a result, issues like transient cell characteristics known from cells comprising titania can be readily avoided. This renders ZAZ a perfectly suited bottom electrode for inverted organic solar cells with a simplified cell architecture. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3610997]