Organic solar cells : simulations and optimization

Abstract

This is a report touching on simulation and optimization the organic solar cells. The organic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic device that is based on organic materials. Due to the high throughput, cheap manufacturing cost and large volume, it brings up the attention in photovoltaic applications. However, due to the low power conversion efficiency organic solar cell still not so popular. In this report, the basic learning of the working principle of the different types of organic solar cells was studied first. Based on the understanding of the advantage and limitation of the different organic solar cell, three different active layers bulk heterojunction organic solar cells are introduced. However, before running the simulation and optimization, a study of the simulation software “General-purpose Photovoltaic Device Model” is also compulsory. Using the simulation software, the layers structure of an organic solar cell was created, the operation of the organic solar cell was simulated and the results were obtained and discussed. To be continued, by varying the different layer’s thickness, the optimised structure of a bulk heterojunction organic solar cell was obtained. After comparison and discussion with these three different active layers organic solar cell, the two best choices of the active layer were chosen to carry on for the next section. In the last part of the project, a tandem organic solar cell has also been discussed by using optimised materials obtained in the previous simulation. A final conclusion for the optimised organic solar cell is give out to have the best power conversion efficiency tandem organic solar cell.