Enhanced Efficiency of Organic Solar Cells with Silver Nanowire Electrodes

Surface plamon resonance (SPR) in metallic nanostructures offers a promising way to enhance the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic solar cell as it exhibits strongly enhanced electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of the metal, which can lead to increased optical absorption in the organic film. Here we demonstrate the SPR enhanced photo-current and PCE of organic solar cells using periodic Ag nanowires as transparent electrodes as compared to the device with conventional ITO electrode. Photo-currents and external quantum efficiencies (EQE) are enhanced as much as 40% and 2.5 fold at a wavelength of 570 nm, respectively, resulting in 35% overall increase in power conversion efficiency than the ITO control device. The use of plasmonic transparent Ag nanowire electrode may help to realize low cost and high performance organic solar cells.