Numerical Investigation of an Organic Solar Cell for Indoor Photovoltaic Energy Harvesting Using SCAPS-1D

Abstract

Indoor photovoltaics (IPVs) have emerged as a promising technology for powering low-power electronic devices, wireless sensors, and Internet-of-Things systems from artificial light sources. In contrast to conventional outdoor photovoltaics, indoor photovoltaic devices operate under substantially lower illumination intensities and spectrally different light sources, making device optimization under indoor conditions essential. In this work, the indoor photovoltaic performance of a FTO/PDINO/PBDB-T:ITIC/CFTS/Al organic solar-cell architecture is investigated using one-dimensional numerical device modelling with SCAPS-1D. The effects of illumination intensity, LED colour temperature, PBDB-T:ITIC absorber thickness, absorber defect density, and operating temperature are systematically examined. Illumination intensity is varied from 200 to 2000 lux, while LED colour temperature is considered in the range of 2700–6500 K. The absorber thickness, defect density and temperature are varied over 80–320 nm, 10¹²–10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and 280–360 K, respectively. The photovoltaic response is evaluated in terms of V_OC​, J_SC​, fill factor, power-conversion efficiency and maximum power density. The analysis provides insight into the interplay between photon generation, carrier transport and recombination under low-intensity artificial illumination and identifies the material and operating parameters that are most critical for efficient indoor energy harvesting.