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Laminated fabrication of polymeric photovoltaic diodes

Nature volume 395, pages 257–260 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Photoexcited electron transfer between donor and acceptor molecular semiconductors provides a method of efficient charge generation following photoabsorption, which can be exploited in photovoltaic diodes1,2,3. But efficient charge separation and transport to collection electrodes is problematic, because the absorbed photons must be close to the donor–acceptor heterojunction, while at the same time good connectivity of the donor and acceptor materials to their respective electrodes is required. Mixtures of acceptor and donor semiconducting polymers3,4 (or macromolecules5) can provide phase-separated structures which go some way to meeting this requirement, providing high photoconductive efficiencies. Here we describe two-layer polymer diodes, fabricated by a lamination technique followed by controlled annealing. The resulting structures provide good connectivity to the collection electrodes, and we achieve a short-circuit photovoltaic quantum efficiency of up to 29% at optimum wavelength, and an overall power conversion efficiency of 1.9% under a simulated solar spectrum. Given the convenience of polymer processing, these results indicate a promising avenue towards practical applications for such devices.

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Figure 1: Chemical structures and device structure.
Figure 2: Optical properties.
Figure 3: Current–voltage characteristics.
Figure 4: Effect of light intensity.
Figure 5: Tapping-mode AFM images.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the European Commission (TMR Marie Curie fellowship and TMR Network SELOA), and from CNPq, Brazilian government, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, CB3 0HE, Cambridge, UK

    M. Granström, K. Petritsch, A. C. Arias & R. H. Friend

  2. Cambridge Display Technology Ltd, 181A Huntingdon Road, CB3 0DJ, Cambridge, UK

    A. Lux

  3. Department of Polymer Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden

    M. R. Andersson

Authors
  1. M. Granström
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  2. K. Petritsch
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  3. A. C. Arias
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  4. A. Lux
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  5. M. R. Andersson
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  6. R. H. Friend
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Correspondence to R. H. Friend.

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Granström, M., Petritsch, K., Arias, A. et al. Laminated fabrication of polymeric photovoltaic diodes. Nature 395, 257–260 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/26183

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