Efficiency Enhancement in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells Integrated with Large-Area Ag Nanotriangle Arrays

Efficiency enhancement in plasmonic bulk heterojunction (PCDTBT:PCBM) organic solar cells (OSCs) is demonstrated with the integration of large-area periodic Ag nanotriangle (NT) arrays (that were fabricated using the cost-effective, high-throughput nanosphere lithography technique) in the OSC device. The improvements to the power conversion efficiency (from 4.24 to 4.52%) and to the short circuit current density (by ∼12%) are attributed to an increase in exciton generation induced by the strong local E-field and the scattering generated by the localized surface plasmon resonance of the hexagonal NT arrays. These findings are validated by a range of steady-state and transient optical spectroscopy and correlated with device performance data. Importantly, our work demonstrates the feasibility of integrating a simple cost-effective, tailorable, and scalable nanofabrication technique with existing OSC fabrication processes.