Highly efficient organic multi-junction solar cells with a thiophene based donor material

The efficiency of organic solar cells can be increased by serial stacked subcells even upon using the same absorber material. For the multi-junction devices presented here, we use the small molecule donor material DCV5T-Me. The subcell currents were matched by optical transfer matrix simulation, allowing an efficiency increase from 8.3% for a single junction up to 9.7% for a triple junction cell. The external quantum efficiency of the subcells, measured under appropriate light bias illumination, is spectrally shifted due to the microcavity of the complete stack, resulting in a broadband response and an increased cell current. The increase of the power conversion efficiency upon device stacking is even stronger for large area cells due to higher influence of the resistance of the indium tin oxide anode, emphasizing the advantage of multi-junction devices for large-area applications. (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.