Chen Shufen

Au nanorods-incorporated plasmonic-enhanced inverted organic solar cells*

The effect of Au nanorods (NRs) on optical-to-electric conversion efficiency is investigated in inverted polymer solar cells, in which Au NRs are sandwiched between two layers of ZnO. Accompanied by the optimization of thickness of ZnO covered on Au NRs, a high-power conversion efficiency of 3.60% and an enhanced short-circuit current density (JSC) of 10.87 mA/cm2 are achieved in the poly(3-hexylthiophene): [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PC60BM)-based inverted cell and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) is enhanced by 19.6% compared with the control device. The detailed analyses of the light absorption characteristics, the simulated scattering induced by Au NRs, and the electromagnetic field around Au NRs show that the absorption improvement in the photoactive layer due to the light scattering from the longitudinal axis and the near-field increase around Au NRs induced by localized surface plasmon resonance plays a key role in enhancing the performances.

High-contrast top-emitting organic light-emitting devices

In this paper we report on a high-contrast top-emitting organic light-emitting device utilizing a moderate-reflection contrast-enhancement stack and a high refractive index anti-reflection layer. The contrast-enhancement stack consists of a thin metal anode layer, a dielectric bilayer, and a thick metal underlayer. The resulting device, with the optimized contrast-enhancement stack thicknesses of Ni (30 nm)/MgF2 (62 nm)/ZnS (16 nm)/Ni (20 nm) and the 25-nm-thick ZnS anti-reflection layer, achieves a luminous reflectance of 4.01% in the visible region and a maximum current efficiency of 0.99 cd/A (at 62.3 mA/cm2) together with a very stable chromaticity. The contrast ratio reaches 561:1 at an on-state brightness of 1000 cd/m2 under an ambient illumination of 140 lx. In addition, the anti-reflection layer can also enhance the transmissivity of the cathode and improve light out-coupling by the effective restraint of microcavity effects.