Fabrication, Optical Modeling, and Color Characterization of Semitransparent Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells in an Inverted Structure

Semitransparent inverted organic photodiodes are fabricated with a Baytron PH500 ethylene‐glycol layer/silver grid as the top electrode. Reasonable performances are obtained under both rear‐ and front‐side illumination and efficiencies up to 2% are achieved. Some light is shed on visual prospects through optical simulations for a semitransparent device of poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and the C60 derivative 1‐(3‐methoxycarbonyl)propyl‐1‐phenyl[6,6]C71 (PC70BM) in the inverted structure. These calculations allow the maximum efficiency achievable to be predicted for semitransparent cells based on P3HT:PC70BM versus the transparency perception for a human eye. The simulations suggest that low‐bandgap materials such as poly[2,6‐(4,4‐bis‐(2‐ethylhexyl)‐4H‐cyclopenta[2,1‐b;3,4‐b′]dithiophene)‐alt‐4,7‐(2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole)] (PCPDTBT) have a better potential for semitransparent devices. In addition, the color range recognized by the human eye is predicted by the optical simulation for some semitransparent devices including different active layers. A semitransparent inverted organic photodiode is successfully fabricated with a Baytron PH500 layer/silver grid as the top electrode. Reasonable performances are achieved under both rear‐ and front‐side illumination. The maximum efficiency achievable in semitransparent cells based on P3HT:PC70BM is predicted versus the transparency perception for human eye. Optical simulations suggest that low‐bandgap materials have a better potential for semitransparent devices.