Study of the Energy Level Alignment of Organic Materials' Planar Junction Prepared by Electrospray Vacuum Deposition

We investigated the energy levels of valence region at the planar junction of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and C61-butyric acid methylester (PCBM) using ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) with ultra high vacuum. These are the most widely used materials for bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells due to their high efficiency. In order to make the planar junction, we carried out the electrospray vacuum deposition (EVD) of PCBM onto spin-coated P3HT in high vacuum conditions (${\sim}10^{-5}-10^{-6}$). The planar junction interface exhibited 0.71 eV for the offset between P3HT HOMO and PCBM LUMO, which is different from the gap (0.85 eV) of individual values and is closer to the open circuit voltage of solar cells fabricated with the same material combination.