Novel cathode buffer layer of Ag-doped bathocuproine for small molecule organic solar cell with inverted structure

•Ag-doped BCP layer has good optical and electrical properties.•The buffer layer of Ag-doped BCP greatly improved the performance of OSCs.•The favorable interface can eliminate the S-kink in J–V curve.

2,9-Dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (C26H20N2), known as bathocuproine (BCP), is a commonly used cathode buffer layer in conventional structure organic solar cells (OSCs). We demonstrated that BCP layer can also be used as a buffer layer in inverted structure OSCs. Unfortunately, the device exhibited an anomalous kink in the current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics, namely, an S-shaped J–V curve, leading to a low fill factor and low power conversion efficiency (PCE). To improve device performance, Ag-doped BCP layer (Ag:BCP) was used to replace the BCP layer. The results showed that the Ag:BCP layer can eliminate the S-kink in the J–V curve, resulting in a large improvement of fill factor and PCE. The origin of the S-shaped J–V curve was demonstrated to originate from the charge accumulation at the fullerene (C60)/BCP interface. On the contrary, the C60/Ag:BCP interface has favorable electronic properties with beneficial gap states for the transport of free carriers. Together with the good conductivity of Ag:BCP layer and the smooth morphology properties, the device performance was greatly improved by Ag:BCP buffer layer.

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