Effect of Plasmonic Enhancement of Light Absorption on the Efficiency of Polymer Solar Cell

We demonstrate the effect of insertion of Au nano clusters nano clusters (NCs) with various thickness on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) in bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells polymer solar cellbased on blended poly (3-hexylthiophene):[6, 6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) (Li et al., Nat Photo 6: 205, [1]). The Au NCs were vacuum deposited on pre cleaned indium-tin-oxide (ITO) substrates prior to deposition of poly (3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene: poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) buffer layer. It has been found that both short-circuit current density and PCE increase after incorporating Au NCs between ITO/PEDOT: PSS interface. The PCE enhancement is attributed to the localized surface plasmonic excitation of Au NPs (Tada et al., Nat Mat 10:450, [2]). The method employed has great potential in future practical applications