Inverted Polymer Solar Cells with Sol-Gel Derived Cesium-Doped Zinc Oxide Thin Film as a Buffer Layer

An inverted structure of polymer solar cells based on Poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT):[6-6] Phenyl-(6) butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) with thin films of sol-gel derived Cesium doped ZnO (Cs:ZnO) was developed as an efficient cathode buffer layer. Doped and undoped thin films were deposited using a less studied method, doctor blade, which was compatible with Roll-2-Roll printing method. By comparing the effect of Cs:ZnO thin films with various dopant ratio on the performance of inverted polymer solar cells, 0.5% Cs doped ZnO was found as the most effective doping level among the selected doping ratios. Using 30 nm thickness of 0.5% Csn:ZnO thin film as an electron transport layer led to the average efficiency which was significantly higher than (9%) that of similar devices employing the same thickness of undoped ZnO film. Results showed that the devices fabricated with 1% and 2% cesium doped ZnO yielded lower power conversion efficiency, which could be due to the lower FF. Also, the influence of dopant incorporation on the optical transmittance and electrical conductivity of ZnO films was investigated.