The use of ZnO as optical spacer in polymer solar cells: Theoretical and experimental study

For organic solar cells, insertion of an optical spacer between the active layer and the reflective electrode results in a redistribution of the optical electric field. In this paper, theoretical calculations using optical modeling are compared with experimental results for devices with ZnO as optical spacer. An excellent agreement was found for blends composed of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and a fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl ${\mathrm{C}}_{61}$ butyric acid methyl ester.