In‐Doped ZnO Electron Transport Layer for High‐Efficiency Ultrathin Flexible Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Abstract Sol–gel processed zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the most widely used electron transport layers (ETLs) in inverted organic solar cells (OSCs). The high annealing temperature (≈200 °C) required for sintering to ensure a high electron mobility however results in severe damage to flexible substrates. Thus, flexible organic solar cells based on sol–gel processed ZnO exhibit significantly lower efficiency than rigid devices. In this paper, an indium‐doping approach is developed to improve the optoelectronic properties of ZnO layers and reduce the required annealing temperature. Inverted OSCs based on In‐doped ZnO (IZO) exhibit a higher efficiency than those based on ZnO for a range of different active layer systems. For the PM6:L8‐BO system, the efficiency increases from 17.0% for the pristine ZnO‐based device to 17.8% for the IZO‐based device. The IZO‐based device with an active layer of PM6:L8‐BO:BTP‐eC9 exhibits an even higher efficiency of up to 18.1%. In addition, a 1.2‐micrometer‐thick inverted ultrathin flexible organic solar cell is fabricated based on the IZO ETL that achieves an efficiency of 17.0% with a power‐per‐weight ratio of 40.4 W g−1, which is one of the highest efficiency for ultrathin (less than 10 micrometers) flexible organic solar cells.

Keywords

• electron transport layer
• indium doped zinc oxide
• inverted organic solar cells
• low‐temperature annealing
• ultrathin flexible devices