• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2012.05a
• /
• pp.59.2-59.2
• /
• 2012

Polymer solar cells utilize bulk heterojunction (BHJ) type photo-active layer in which the electron donating polymer and electron accepting $C_{60}$ derivatives are blended. We found there is significant charge recombination at the interface between the BHJ active layer and electrode. The charge recombination at the interface was effectively reduced by inserting wide band gap inorganic interfacial layer, which resulted in efficiency and stability enhancement of BHJ polymer solar cell.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2010.02a
• /
• pp.321-321
• /
• 2010

The PEDOT:PSS layer is usually used as hole transporting layer for the polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells. However, the interface between ITO and PEDOT:PSS is not stable and the chemical reaction between ITO and PEDOT can result in degraded device performance. We used the tungsten oxides as a hole transport layer by spin-coating. The $WO_3$ nanoparticles were well dispersed in ammonium hydroxide and deionized water and formed thin layer on the ITO anode. We found that $WO_3$ surface is more hydrophobic than the bare ITO or PEDOT:PSS-coated surfaces. The hydrophobic surfaces promote an ordered growth of P3HT films. A higher degree of P3HT ordering is expected to improve the hole mobility and the lifetime of the device using the tungsten oxide showed better stability compared to the device using the PEDOT:PSS.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.48-53
• /
• 2016

We report the effect of physical load on the stability of organic solar cells under physical loads. The active layers in organic solar cells were fabricated with bulk heterojunction films (BHJ) films of poly (3-hexylthiophene) and phenyl-$C_{61}$-butyric methyl ester. The loading time was varied up to 60 s by keeping the physical load constant. Results showed that the open circuit voltage was not influenced by the physical load but other solar cell parameters were sensitive to the loading time. The fill factor was very slightly increased at 15 s, while short circuit current density was well kept for 30 s. The power conversion efficiency was reasonably maintained for 45 s but became significantly decreased by the continuous loading for 60 s.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.98-101
• /
• 2012

I studied the stability of organic photovoltaic cells in terms of P3HT:PCBM-71 blend ratio as a function of storage time. I obtained the best cell performance by optimizing the blend ratio of electron donor and electron acceptor within the active layer. In this study, I found that the more the P3HT:PCBM ratio increases within the active layer, the more the cell efficiency decreases as the storage time increases. As a result, the best optimized blend ratio was the 1:0.6 ratio of P3HT:PCBM-71, and cell efficiency of the device with the 1:0.6 blend ratio was 4.49%. The device with the best cell efficiency showed good stability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.275.1-275.1
• /
• 2014

The effects of the interfacial buffer layer and temperature on the organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) nanostructures of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and fullerene (C60) systems were investigated using real time in-situ x-ray scattering. In the CuPc:C60 BHJ structures, standing-on configured ${\gamma}$-CuPc phase was formed by co-deposition of CuPc and C60. Once formed ${\gamma}$-phase was thermally stable during the annealing upon $180^{\circ}C$. Meanwhile, the insertion of CuI buffer layer prior to deposition of the CuPc:C60 BHJ layer induced lying-down configured CuPc crystals in the BHJ layer. The lying CuPc peak intensity and the lattice parameter were increased by the thermal annealing. This increment of the intensity seemed to be related to the strain at the interface between CuPc:C60 and CuI, which was proportional to the enhancement of the power conversion efficiency of the device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.08a
• /
• pp.162-162
• /
• 2012

ZnPc and CuPc molecules stacked similar way in the film, but showed different growth modes in thermal evaporation. The distribution of CuPc crystals did not change by the film thickness, whereas the distribution of ZnPc became random as the increase of the film thickness. The disc type nanograins of CuPc were quite regularly distributed at the initial growth regime and the regular distribution of nanograins was kept during the film growth. On the other hand, ZnPc consisted in ellipsoid shaped nanograins and the distribution of nanograins was not regular in the initial growth regime. The irregular distribution of nanograins changed to the regular mode at the later growth regime by showing structure factor in GISAXS measurement. The different initial nanograin distribution in ZnPc and CuPc was related to the different nanostructure in the mixed layer with C60 to form the bulk heterojunction.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.75-79
• /
• 2009

An intrinsic silicon thin film passivation layer is deposited by the microwave remote-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at temperature of $175^{\circ}C$ and various gas ratios for solar cell applications. The good quality amorphous silicon films were formed at silane $(SiH_4)$ gas flow rates above 15 seem. The highest effective carrier lifetime was obtained at the $SiH_4$, flow rate of 20 seem and the value was about 3 times higher compared with the bulk lifetime of 5.6 ${\mu}s$ at a fixed injection level of ${\Delta}n\;=\;5{\times}10^{14}\;cm^{-3}$. An annealing treatment was performed and the carrier life times were increased approximately 5 times compared with the bulk lifetime. The optimal annealing temperature and time were obtained at 250 $^{\circ}C$ and 60 sec respectively. This indicates that the combination of the deposition of an amorphous thin film at a low temperature and the annealing treatment contributes to the excellent surface and bulk passivation.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 2008.07a
• /
• pp.1154-1155
• /
• 2008

본 연구에서는 전자 주개 물질(electron donor)인 regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT)와 전자 받개 물질(electron acceptor)인 phenyl-$C_{61}$-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM)을 혼합한 복합 박막 구조(Bulk Heterojunction)를 이용하여 태양전지를 제작하고 광활성층(Active layer)의 두께를 변화시키면서 광학적 특성 및 전기적 특성에 대해 분석하였다. 광활성층의 두께가 두꺼워 질수록 광흡수율이 높기 때문에 태양전지의 효율이 증가하여 200nm정도의 두께에서 가장 좋은 특성을 보였으며, 그 이상의 두께에서는 광흡수율이 높더라도 직렬저항(Series resistance)의 증가로 개방 회로 전압이 감소하는 것을 볼 수 있었으며, 최적화된 광활성층의 두께(190nm)에서 개방 회로 전압($V_{oc}$)은 0.6V, 단락 회로 전류($J_{sc}$)는 8.29mA, Fill factor(FF)는 0.59, 전력변환효율($\eta$)은 2.94%였다.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.5.1-5.1
• /
• 2009

Organic photovoltaic (OPV)cells have attracted considerable attention due to their potential for flexible, lightweight, and low-cost application of solar energy conversion. Since a 1% power conversion efficiency (PCE) OPV based on a single donor-acceptor heterojunction was reported by Tang, the PCE has steadily improved around 5%. It is well known that a high parallel (shunt)resistance and a low series resistance are required simultaneously to achieve ideal photovoltaic devices. The device should be free of leakage current through the device to maximize the parallel resistance. The series resistance is attributed to the ohmic loss in the whole device, which includes the bulk resistance and the contact resistance. The bulk resistance originated from the bulk resistance of the organic layer and the electrodes; the contact resistance comes from the interface between the electrodes and the active layer. Furthermore, it has been reported that the bulk resistance of the indium tin oxide (ITO) of the devices dominates the series resistance of OPVs for a large area more than $0.01\;cm^2$. Therefore, in practical application, the large area of ITO may significantly reduce the device performance. In this work, we investigated the effect of sheet resistance ($R_{sh}$) of deposited ITO on the performance of OPVs. It was found that the device performance of polythiophene-fullerene (P3HT:PCBM) bulk heterojunction OPVs was critically dependent on Rsh of the ITO electrode. With decreasing $R_{sh}$ of the ITO from 39 to $8.5\;{\Omega}/{\square}$, the fill factor (FF) of OPVs was dramatically improved from 0.407 to 0.580, resulting in improvement of PCE from $1.63{\pm}0.2$ to $2.5{\pm}0.1%$ underan AM1.5 simulated solar intensity of $100\;mW/cm^2$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.143-150
• /
• 2023

Underwater wireless communication is a challenging issue for realizing the smart aqua-farm and various marine activities for exploring the ocean and environmental monitoring. In comparison to acoustic and radio frequency technologies, the visible light communication is the most promising method to transmit data with a higher speed in complex underwater environments. To send data at a speedier rate, high-performance photodetectors are essentially required to receive blue and/or cyan-blue light that are transmitted from the light sources in a light-fidelity (Li-Fi) system. Here, we fabricated high-performance organic phototransistors (OPTs) based on P-type donor polymer (PTO2) and N-type acceptor small molecule (IT-4F) blend semiconductors. Bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) PTO2:IT-4F photo-active layer has a broad absorption spectrum in the range of 450~550 nm wavelength. Solution-processed OPTs showed a high photo-responsivity >1,000 mA/W, a large photo-sensitivity >10³, a fast response time, and reproducible light-On/Off switching characteristics even under a weak incident light. BHJ organic semiconductors absorbed photons and generated excitons, and efficiently dissociated to electron and hole carriers at the donor-acceptor interface. Printed and flexible OPTs can be widely used as Li-Fi receivers and image sensors for underwater communication and underwater internet of things (UIoTs).