Simulation of organic solar cells using AMPS-1D program

The analysis of microelectronic and photonic structure in one dimension program [AMPS-1D] program has been successfully used to study inorganic solar cells. In this work the program has been used to optimize the performance of the organic solar cells. The cells considered consist of poly(2-methoxy-5-(3,7-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) [MDMO-PPV]] as electron donors, and (6,6)-phenyl-c ₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester [PCBM] as electron acceptor, (MDOM-PPV/PCBM) is used as photo - active material, sandwiched between a transparent indium tin oxide (ITO)and layer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT/PSS) on top of the ITO electrode and an AL backside contact. The results are found to be in a good agreement with the experimental results, obtained from the literature. The results have shown that the optimum thickness of the solar cell is about 120 nm, the optimum energy difference between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the electron donor and the electron acceptor is about 0.5 eV, and the maximum efficiency for the organic solar cell is about 9%. The results have also shown that the open circuit voltage decreases with temperature at a rate of about 0.55 mV/ ⁰K.