Highly conductive Zinc-Tin-Oxide buffer layer for inverted polymer solar cells

•Highly conductive and all transparent cathodic oxide buffer for organic solar cells.•Electron mobility is the highest for solution-processed Zinc–Tin Oxide by far.•Lowers the surface roughness and reduces the defects states function as passivation effects.•High performance polymer solar cells achieved by the use of Zinc–Tin oxide layer.

Thin-films of Zinc Tin Oxide (ZTO) with an extremely high charge carrier mobility and superior optical transmittance are synthesized using a simple solution method. These ZTO films have been systematically studied for the application in inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs). The Hall effects measurements show that the charge mobility of the ZTO semiconductor is over 16.5 cm2.V−1.S−1, which is the highest mobility value ever reported for oxide buffer made by using solution process. By applying the ZTO buffer layer in the inverted PSCs of P3HT:PC61BM, the power conversion efficiency of the device is 30% higher than that of the devices made with other common buffer layers such as ZnO and TiO2. Light intensity-dependent JV studies and PL measurements also indicate that ZTO buffer layer reduces surface recombination. This work demonstrates that the solution-synthesized ZTO is a promising new buffer layer with superior electron extraction capability for the solar cells.

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