Design of color tunable thin film polymer solar cells for photovoltaics printing

Abstract

Color tunable thin film polymer solar cells have demonstrated the potentials of a wide applications in photovoltaics printing, which is significant for ink pollution reduction and energy saving. This work presents a new effective approach to realize color-tuning photovoltaic cells with optical microcavity structures. Aluminum-doped zinc oxide is utilized as electron transport layer material. With its high electrical conductivity, the thickness tuning range can be quite large, which means the cavity length has a wide variation range. It thus provides sufficient space for optical thin film design to obtain multi colors. By the transfer matrix method, device reflection and absorption spectra are numerically investigated. Based on that, the optical principles for color tunability are explored. In further step, the relationship between device photovoltaics performance and reflective colors are also discussed. Finally, the color coordinates and luminosities are calculated. As results, the colors of the devices designed are capable to cover a relatively large region in Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) 1931 x, y chromaticity diagram, which is available to be integrated into the advertisement poster boards, building wall printing and other display applications.