Design and fabrication of a semi-transparent solar cell considering the effect of the layer thickness of MoO3/Ag/MoO3 transparent top contact on optical and electrical properties.

We conducted the present study to design and manufacture a semi-transparent organic solar cell (ST-OSC). First, we formed a transparent top contact as MoO3/Ag/MoO3 in a dielectric/metal/dielectric (DMD) structure. We performed the production of an FTO/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/MoO3/Ag/MoO3 ST-OSC by integrating MoO3/Ag/MoO3 (10/ $$d_{m}$$ / $$d_{{od}}$$ nm) instead of an Ag electrode in an opaque FTO/ZnO/P3HT:PCBM/MoO3/Ag (–/40/130/10/100 nm) OSC, after theoretically achieving optimal values of optical and electrical parameters depending on Ag layer thickness. The transparency decreased with the increase of $$d_{m}$$ values for current DMD. Meanwhile, maximum transmittance and average visible transmittance (AVT) indicated the maximum values of over 92% for $$d_{m} ~$$  = 4 and 8 nm, respectively. For ST-OSCs, the absorption and reflectance increased in the visible region by a wavelength of longer than 560 nm and in the whole near-infrared region by increasing $$d_{m}$$ up to 16 nm. Moreover, in the CIE chromaticity diagram, we reported a shift towards the D65 Planckian locus for colour coordinates of current ST-OSCs. Electrical analysis indicated the photogenerated current density and AVT values for $$d_{m} = 6$$  nm as 63.30 mA/cm2 and 38.52%, respectively. Thus, the theoretical and experimental comparison of optical and electrical characteristics confirmed that the manufactured structure is potentially conducive for a high-performance ST-OSC.