Optical limitations in thin-film low-band-gap polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction devices

Photovoltaic devices from the low-band-gap alternating copolymer APFO-Green1, blended with the fullerene derivative BTPF70 as electron acceptor, show a pronounced variation of the external quantum efficiency with varying thickness. Device simulation, based on ellipsometric characterization, reveals that this behavior is to be expected and valid also for most low-band-gap polymers and that it can be explained by optical interference. Requirements for materials suitable for wide spectral coverage in thin-film organic solar cells are delineated. Furthermore, the internal quantum efficiency is calculated to be ≈0.4.