Advanced triple junction solar cell by employing inorganic-organic hybrid materials

Abstract

We employed a novel inorganic-organic hybrid triple junction solar cell (IOHTC), with an inorganic silicon tandem cell (ITC) that is series connected to an organic solar cell (OSC) at the back of the ITC. The ITC is used to absorb the short wavelength part of the solar spectrum, while the organic bottom cell utilizes the long wavelength part of the spectrum. The IOHTC was fabricated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) and PTB7: PCBM as active layers. The optical gap (E-g) of the active layers of the front to the back cells was 1.83 eV, 1.80 eV and 1.55 eV, respectively. The efficiency of the optimized IOHTC reached a maximum of 7.70% with high open circuit voltage (V-oc) 2.33 V. The observed V-oc of the IOHTC was 96.31% of the sum of the V-oc of the individual component cells. In one of the IOHTC, the total current density (J(sc)) increased by 11.19% and 14.13% as compared with total J(sc) of the OSC and ITC, respectively.