Title
Crystalline silicon solar cells with tetracene interlayers: The path to silicon-singlet fission heterojunction devices
Date Issued
01 November 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Macqueen R.W.
Liebhaber M.
Niederhausen J.
Mews M.
Gersmann C.
Jäckle S.
Jäger K.
Tayebjee M.J.Y.
Schmidt T.W.
Lips K.
Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics
Publisher(s)
Royal Society of Chemistry
Abstract
Singlet exciton fission is an exciton multiplication process that occurs in certain organic materials, converting the energy of single highly-energetic photons into pairs of triplet excitons. This could be used to boost the conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells by creating photocurrent from energy that is usually lost to thermalisation. An appealing method of implementing singlet fission with crystalline silicon is to incorporate singlet fission media directly into a crystalline silicon device. To this end, we developed a solar cell that pairs the electron-selective contact of a high-efficiency silicon heterojunction cell with an organic singlet fission material, tetracene, and a PEDOT:PSS hole extraction layer. Tetracene and n-type crystalline silicon meet in a direct organic-inorganic heterojunction. In this concept the tetracene layer selectively absorbs blue-green light, generating triplet pairs that can dissociate or resonantly transfer at the organo-silicon interface, while lower-energy light is transmitted to the silicon absorber. UV photoemission measurements of the organic-inorganic interface showed an energy level alignment conducive to selective hole extraction from silicon by the organic layer. This was borne out by current-voltage measurements of devices subsequently produced. In these devices, the silicon substrate remained well-passivated beneath the tetracene thin film. Light absorption in the tetracene layer created a net reduction in current for the solar cell, but optical modelling of the external quantum efficiency spectrum suggested a small photocurrent contribution from the layer. This is a promising first result for the direct heterojunction approach to singlet fission on crystalline silicon.
Start page
1065
End page
1075
Volume
5
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de materiales
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85054605350
Source
Materials Horizons
ISSN of the container
20516347
Sponsor(s)
Financial support was provided by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) through the project ‘‘Silicon In-situ Spectroscopy at the Synchrotron’’ (SISSY), Grant No. BMBF-03SF0403, and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). RWM thanks the Helmholtz Association for funding and support. T. W. S acknowledges funding from the Australian Research Council (FT130100177, CE170100026). This work was supported by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (705113). We gratefully acknowledge Lars Korte of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, for assistance with device preparation and organic deposition, and the Norbert Koch group of Humboldt University of Berlin, for providing access to their UPS setups.
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme - 705113 - H2020
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst France
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus