Energy Level Alignment and Morphology of Ag and Au Nanoparticle Recombination Contacts in Tandem Planar Heterojunction Solar Cells

We present the interface characterization of vacuum-deposited metal nanoparticle recombination layers (Ag, Au; 1 nm equivalent thickness) at donor/acceptor heterojunctions comprising copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and C60 as model interfaces for tandem planar heterojunction organic photovoltaics (TOPVs). We compare the extent to which voltage doubling occurs using these two metal recombination contacts (RC) in TOPVs (ITO/CuPc/C60/(Ag,Au)/CuPc/C60/BCP/Al) and correlate the differences with energetic dissimilarities revealed by UV-photoemission (UPS) and inverse photoemission (IPES) spectroscopies, and morphology as revealed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Ag interlayer RCs produce the expected voltage doubling in the open-circuit voltage (VOC) for the TOPV, whereas Au RCs showed poor voltage addition. Significant shifts in ionization potential and electron affinity and shifts in local work function were observed for C60/metal heterojunctions and for ...