Electron-collecting oxide layers in inverted polymer solar cells via oxidation of thermally evaporated titanium

A simple and intuitive deposition technique is discussed to obtain titanium oxide used as an electron collecting layer in polymer solar cells based on the thermal evaporation of pristine titanium and further thermal treatment to convert the metal in oxide. Since the degradation of indium-doped tin oxide at high temperatures is an issue, we demonstrate that the combination of glass/fluorine tin oxide and high temperatures represents a promising approach in the fabrication of inverted polymer solar cells with such a titanium oxide electron collecting layer.