Analytical Modeling of the Effect of Silver Nanoparticle Incorporation in Active Layer of an Organic Solar Cell

The incomplete absorption of the incoming light radiation in the absorber layer of the organic solar cell (OSC) is a major issue in OSC technology. Persistent research is being carried out to address this issue and the incorporation of metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) has been considered a viable option. The presence of MNPs in the active layer of the cell enhances the absorption of light, thereby leading to increased cell efficiencies. An effort has been made to critically evaluate the incorporation of spherical silver nanoparticles in the active layer of a Poly (3-hexylthiophene): phenyl-C ₆₁ -butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) based OSC. The optical properties of the active layer are affected by the incorporated MNPs. The MNPs with their characteristic absorption and scattering cross section affect the absorption capabilities of the active layer absorber material. The absorption coefficient of the active layer also gets modified because of the presence of the MNPs in it. An analytical model is proposed to describe the effect of the changing sizes of the incorporated MNPs on the absorption coefficient and the ensuing generation of charge carriers in the OSC. The generation to recombination rate ratio (G/R) has been coined as a performance parameter for the quantification of the effect of the introduction of MNPs in OSCs. This parameter has not been used earlier for the performance analysis of the MNP-incorporated OSCs.