Enhancement of the power conversion efficiency for inverted organic photovoltaic devices due to the localized surface plasmonic resonant effect of Au nanoparticles embedded in ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract

The absorption spectra and input photon-to-converted current efficiency curves showed that Au nanoparticles increased the plasmonic broadband light absorption, thereby enhancing the short-circuit current density of the inverted organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells with a Au-ZnO nanocomposite electron transport layer (ETL). The power conversion efficiency of the inverted OPV cell fabricated with a Au-ZnO nanocomposite ETL was higher by 40% than that of the inverted OPV cell fabricated with a ZnO nanoparticle ETL, which could be attributed to the enhanced photon absorption in the active layer due to the localized surface plasmonic resonance of the Au nanoparticles. (C) 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics