Effects of tio2 electron transport layer thickness on the performance of organic solar cell: simulation study

Organic solar cell has gained more attention due to its low-cost production and easy fabrication process. However, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is still low as compared to that of inorganic solar cell. One of the approaches to improve the PCE of organic solar cell is by introducing an electron transport layer which can extract the electrons effectively in between photoactive layer and cathode. Simulation study using SCAPS (Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator) software was conducted to examine the effects of TiO2 electron transport layer thickness on the performance of organic solar cell with ITO/TiO2/P3HT:PCBM/Ag structure. P3HT:PCBM acted as photoactive layer, whereas ITO and Ag played roles as cathode and anode, respectively. The range of studied thickness was from 30 to 180 nm. The simulation result indicates that the PCE increased with TiO2 layer thickness in the range of 30 to 120 nm, and it saturated when the TiO2 layer thickness was further raised to 180 nm. The highest PCE of 2.139% was obtained at TiO2 layer thickness of 180 nm.