Stabilization mechanisms of aluminum-titanium bilayer cathodes in organic solar cells.

A major concern in organic solar cells today is to continue to improve their stability. Aluminum-titanium bilayer cathodes have been reported to prolong the shelf-lives of organic solar cells to be more than 3 months in air without encapsulation. However, the stabilization mechanism was unsolved, and further investigation into the mechanism was required. We probed the surface morphology of different cathodes with atomic force microscope and explored elemental depth profiles in different devices with time of flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry to analyze the mechanism, in addition to optimization of the cell structure. Based on the experimental observations, we attribute the improved shelf-lives to three functions of the bilayer cathodes, e.g., the elimination of large cracks, the suppression of interdiffusion, and the sustainable oxygen scavenging. These findings provide information useful for rationally designing efficient structures that stabilize organic solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]