Glancing Angle Deposition of Copper Iodide Nanocrystals for Efficient Organic Photovoltaics

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 12; no. 8; pp. 4146 - 4152
• Main Authors: Zhou, Ying, Taima, Tetsuya, Miyadera, Tetsuhiko, Yamanari, Toshihiro, Kitamura, Michinori, Nakatsu, Kazuhiro, Yoshida, Yuji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 08.08.2012
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Buckminsterfullerene; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Copper; COPPER IODIDE; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; CRYSTAL STRUCTURE; DEPOSITION; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes; Iodides; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Materials science; Methods of nanofabrication; MICROSTRUCTURES; Molecular electronics, nanoelectronics; Nanocrystals; Nanopowders; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanoscale pattern formation; Nanostructure; ORGANIC COMPOUNDS; Physics; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Solar cells; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Zinc; vacuum evaporation; Organic photovoltaics; glancing angle deposition; copper iodide nanocrystals; heterojunction; Patterning; Strong interactions; Roughness; Nanostructures; Zinc; Photovoltaic cell; Surface excitons; Copper iodide; Fullerenes; Light absorption; Arrays; Nanostructured materials; Nanocrystal; Phthalocyanines; Bilayers
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl301709x

We report a simple method to achieve efficient nanostructured organic photovoltaics via patterning copper iodide (CuI) nanocrystals on indium tin oxide by glancing angle deposition. The strong interfacial interaction between zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) and CuI leads to the formation of nanopillar arrays with lying-down molecular order, which greatly improve light absorption and surface roughness for exciton dissociation. Optimized ZnPc/C60 bilayer cell has a power conversion efficiency of 4.0 ± 0.1%, which is about 3-fold larger than that of conventional planar cell.