A compact multi-chamber setup for degradation and lifetime studies of organic solar cells

A controlled atmosphere setup designed for long-term degradation studies of organic solar cells under illumination is presented. The setup was designed with ease-of-use and compactness in mind and allows for multiple solar cells distributed on four glass substrates to be studied in four different chambers with temperature and atmosphere control.

The four chambers are situated at close proximity in the setup thereby allowing the solar cells to be subjected to as uniform an illumination distribution as possible for the given solar simulator employed. The cell substrates serve as the front window and present a tight seal. Hence no illumination correction needs to be performed due to transmission and reflection losses as otherwise seen with test chambers employing a window as a seal.

The solar cells in each chamber are continuously and individually electrically monitored under biased conditions by means of a computer controlled multiplexer and source meter. The dimensions of the setup allow it to pass through a mid-size load lock in most common glove box systems allowing for mounting of tested samples under inert conditions.

As a demonstration of the applicability of the chamber design, a degradation study of standard P3HT:PCBM solar cells was performed under four different environmental conditions.