Plasmon-assisted direction-and polarization-sensitive organic thin-film detector

Utilizing Bragg surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on metal nanostructures for the use in optical devices has been intensively investigated in recent years. Here, we demonstrate the integration of nanostructured metal electrodes into an ITO-free thin film bulk heterojunction organic solar cell, by direct fabrication on a nanoimprinted substrate. The nanostructured device shows interesting optical and electrical behavior, depending on angle and polarization of incidence and the side of excitation. Remarkably, for incidence through the top electrode, a dependency on linear polarization and angle of incidence can be observed. We show that these peculiar characteristics can be attributed to the excitation of dispersive and non-dispersive Bragg SPPs on the metal–dielectric interface on the top electrode and compare it with incidence through the bottom electrode. Furthermore, the optical and electrical response can be controlled by the organic photoactive material, the nanostructures, the materials used for the electrodes and the epoxy encapsulation. Our device can be used as a detector, which generates a direct electrical readout and therefore enables the measuring of the angle of incidence of up to 60\ub0 or the linear polarization state of light, in a spectral region, which is determined by the active material. Our results could furthermore lead to novel organic Bragg SPP-based sensor for a number of applications

Inverted bulk-heterojunction solar cell with cross-linked hole-blocking layer

AbstractWe have developed a hole-blocking layer for bulk-heterojunction solar cells based on cross-linked polyethylenimine (PEI). We tested five different ether-based cross-linkers and found that all of them give comparable solar cell efficiencies. The initial idea that a cross-linked layer is more solvent resistant compared to a pristine PEI layer could not be confirmed. With and without cross-linking, the PEI layer sticks very well to the surface of the indium–tin–oxide electrode and cannot be removed by solvents used to process PEI or common organic semiconductors. The cross-linked PEI hole-blocking layer functions for multiple donor–acceptor blends. We found that using cross-linkers improves the reproducibility of the device fabrication process

Determination of vertical phase separation in a polyfluorene copolymer:fullerene derivative solar cell blend by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

A vertical phase separation is evidenced using high-kinetic-energy X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at different photon energies in a polyfluorene copolymer:C(60) derivative blend relevant for photovoltaic application

The influence of ordering on the photoinduced charge transfer in composites of phenyl-type substituted polythiophenes with methanofullerenes

Regioregular polythiophenes baring 3-(p-methoxyethoxyethoxy)-phenyl substituents (PEOPT) show high photoluminescence efficiencies. Exposing thin films of this polymer to vapors of chloroform or annealing them by heat treatment results in a red shift of the absorption maximum due to solvent or heat induced ordering which gives rise to more planar conformations. The fact, that annealed thin films of PEOPT exhibit absorption edges at relatively low energies and thus have an enhanced spectral range makes them suitable for use in photodiodes / solar cells. The photoinduced charge generation efficiency in PEOPT is significantly enhanced by the addition of a strong electron acceptor like fullerene, as observed by quenching of the luminescence and by photoinduced absorption measurements in the infrared and UV-Vis regime. The efficiency of the photoinduced charge transfer from PEOPT to a methanofullerene is found to depend on the ordering of PEOPT in thin films

Charge transfer excitons in low band gap polymer based solar cells and the role of processing additives

Organic semiconductor blends yielding efficient charge generation and transport are key components for the development of high performance organic bulk-heterojunction solar cells. In this paper the effect of the processing additive octane-dithiol on the charge transfer emission in poly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b']-dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PCPDTBT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) is investigated. Despite the fact that blends processed with and without additive show a ground state charge transfer optical absorption only the blend processed without additive shows a corresponding charge transfer emission. The presented experimental data show that the nano-morphology of the bulk-heterojunction blends plays an important role for the formation of emissive charge transfer excitons, and that it is a loss channel in the studied solar cells.