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Tandem organic solar cells revisited

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 354–355 (2016)Cite this article

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To the Editor —

Recently, Timmreck et al. published an important Correspondence on how to accurately determine the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of organic tandem solar cells1, bringing attention to a widely underestimated challenge in this research field. Because claiming new record efficiencies of tandem devices often receives a lot of public attention, it is important to have reliable and comparable device performance data from standardized device testing protocols. To provide a guideline for accurate measurements, the authors reported 'General rules for characterizing tandem organic solar cells'1. The described protocol is in accordance with ASTM E2236 standard test methods2 and we found it useful and easily adoptable. Notably, in contrast to former reports on EQE measurement protocols and compared with standard test methods, the authors added one additional criterion to control the quality of the measurement results, regarding the use of the spectral response (SR) of the tandem device. In their guidelines, the authors state “measure the SR without bias light and check if it follows the lower envelope of the spectra measured with bias light.”1

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Figure 1: External quantum efficiency measurement of an organic tandem solar cell with an ITO/ZnO/PTB7:PC71BM/c-PEDOT:PSS/m-PEDOT:PSS/ZnO/PDTP-DFBT:PC61BM/MoO3/Ag device architecture4.
Figure 2: Current density–voltage curves measured under 780-nm LED illumination at different intensities.

References

  1. Timmreck, R. et al. Nature Photon. 9, 478–479 (2015).

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  2. ASTM E2236–10 Standard test methods for measurement of electrical performance and spectral response of nonconcentrator multijunction photovoltaic cells and modules. (ASTM International, 2010); http://doi.org/5pg

  3. Gilot, J., Wienk, M. M. & Janssen, R. A. J. Adv. Funct. Mater. 20, 3904–3911 (2010).

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  4. Bahro, D. et al. Adv. Energy Mater. 5, 1501019 (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Light Technology Institute (LTI), Engesserstrasse 13, Building 30.34, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Daniel Bahro, Manuel Koppitz & Alexander Colsmann

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  1. Daniel Bahro
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  2. Manuel Koppitz
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  3. Alexander Colsmann
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Correspondence to Alexander Colsmann.

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Bahro, D., Koppitz, M. & Colsmann, A. Tandem organic solar cells revisited. Nature Photon 10, 354–355 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2016.96

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