Surface Plasmon Resonance Enhanced Polymer Solar Cells by Thermally Evaporating Au into Buffer Layer

Generally, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of metal nanoparticles is widely applied on polymer solar cells (PSCs) to improve device performance by doping method into solution. Herein, a diameter-controlled thermally evaporation method was used to realize Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) doping into WO3 anode buffer layer in inverted PSCs. The surface energy differences between Au and WO3 inevitably lead to Au growing up through the process from nucleation, isolated island, aggregation of metal islands to continuous films along with the process of evaporation. The atom force microscopy (AFM) images indicate that critical thickness of Au film formation is 8 nm, which is in accordance with current density-voltage (J-V) and incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) measurement results of optimal device performance. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) with 8 nm Au is dramatically improved from 4.67 ± 0.13% to 6.63 ± 0.17% compared to the one without Au. Moreover, the optical absorption enhancement is demonstrated by steady state photoluminescence (PL), which agrees well with transmission spectrum. The optical and electrical improvement all suggest that thermal evaporation is the appropriate method to further enhance device performance.