Electrical and optical study of ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal synthesized Ga doped ZnO nanorods for polymer solar cell application

Ga doped ZnO nanorods with homogeneous morphology grown by ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal method on ITO substrate. The effect of hydrothermal growth times 30, 60, 90 and 120 min on the characteristics of ZnO nanorods was examined. The samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis spectrometer and conductivity measurement. With the optimization of the growth times (60 min), we employed Ga doped ZnO nanorods with diverse dopant concentration in fabrication of polymer solar cell. By comparing the effect of Ga doped ZnO thin films with various dopant ratio (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2 %) on the performance of Ga doped ZnO thin films, 0.5 % Ga doped ZnO was found as the most effective doping level among the selected doping concentrations. Also using 0.5 % Ga doped ZnO thin film, J_sc of 7.54 mA/cm², V _oc of 0.541 V, and fill factor of 64.81 % were achieved, which led to power conversion efficiency of 2.64 %. (author)