Experimentally Calibrated Kinetic Monte Carlo Model Reproduces Organic Solar Cell Current-Voltage Curve

Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations are a powerful tool to study the dynamics of charge carriers in organic photovoltaics. However, the key characteristic of any photovoltaic device, its current-voltage ($J$-$V$) curve under solar illumination, has proven challenging to simulate using KMC. The main challenges arise from the presence of injecting contacts and the importance of charge recombination when the internal electric field is low, i.e., close to open-circuit conditions. In this work, an experimentally calibrated KMC model is presented that can fully predict the $J$-$V$ curve of a disordered organic solar cell. It is shown that it is crucial to make experimentally justified assumptions on the injection barriers, the blend morphology, and the kinetics of the charge transfer state involved in geminate and nongeminate recombination. All of these properties are independently calibrated using charge extraction, electron microscopy, and transient absorption measurements, respectively. Clear evidence is provided that the conclusions drawn from microscopic and transient KMC modeling are indeed relevant for real operating organic solar cell devices.Comment: final version; license update

Charge Transport in Pure and Mixed Phases in Organic Solar Cells

In organic solar cells continuous donor and acceptor networks are consid- ered necessary for charge extraction, whereas discontinuous neat phases and molecularly mixed donor–acceptor phases are generally regarded as detrimental. However, the impact of different levels of domain continuity, purity, and donor–acceptor mixing on charge transport remains only semi- quantitatively described. Here, cosublimed donor–acceptor mixtures, where the distance between the donor sites is varied in a controlled manner from homogeneously diluted donor sites to a continuous donor network are studied. Using transient measurements, spanning from sub-picoseconds to micro- seconds photogenerated charge motion is measured in complete photovoltaic devices, to show that even highly diluted donor sites (5.7%–10% molar) in a buckminsterfullerene matrix enable hole transport. Hopping between isolated donor sites can occur by long-range hole tunneling through several buckmin- sterfullerene molecules, over distances of up to ≈4 nm. Hence, these results question the relevance of “pristine” phases and whether a continuous interpen- etrating donor–acceptor network is the ideal morphology for charge transport

Exceptionally low charge trapping enables highly efficient organic bulk heterojunction solar cells

In this study, we investigate the underlying origin of the high performance of PM6:Y6 organic solar cells. Employing transient optoelectronic and photoemission spectroscopies, we find that this blend exhibits greatly suppressed charge trapping into electronic intra-bandgap tail states compared to other polymer/non-fullerene acceptor solar cells, attributed to lower energetic disorder. The presence of tail states is a key source of energetic loss in most organic solar cells, as charge carriers relax into these states, reducing the quasi-Fermi level splitting and therefore device VOC. DFT and Raman analyses indicate this suppression of tail state energetics disorder could be associated with a higher degree of conformational rigidity and uniformity for the Y6 acceptor. We attribute the origin of such conformational rigidity and uniformity of Y6 to the presence of the two alkyl side chains on the outer core that restricts end-group rotation by acting as a conformation locker. The resultant enhanced carrier dynamics and suppressed charge carrier trapping are proposed to be a key factor behind the high performance of this blend. Low energetic disorder is suggested to be a key factor enabling reasonably efficient charge generation in this low energy offset system. In the absence of either energetic disorder or a significant electronic energy offset, it is argued that charge separation in this system is primarily entropy driven. Nevertheless, photocurrent generation is still limited by slow hole transfer from Y6 to PM6, suggesting pathways for further efficiency improvement

Organic photovoltaic cells – promising indoor light harvesters for self-sustainable electronics

Photovoltaic cells are attracting significant interest for harvesting indoor light for low power consumption wireless electronics such as those required for smart homes and offices, and the rapidly-growing Internet of Things. Here, we explore the potential of solution processable, small molecule photovoltaic cells as indoor power sources. By optimizing solvent vapour annealing (SVA) time to the photovoltaic layer, a balance between its crystallization and phase separation is obtained, resulting in a record power conversion efficiency of over 28 % under fluorescent lamps of 1000 lux, generating a maximum power density of 78.2 µW/cm2 (>10 % efficiency under AM1.5G). This high indoor performance surpasses silicon based photovoltaic cells, and is similar to gallium arsenide photovoltaic cells. Besides, the ratios of the voltage at maximum power point to the open circuit voltage are similar from indoor lighting to one sun condition, which is unique and allows a less power consuming method to track the maximum power point for a broad range of light intensities (potentially attractive for wearable PV). New insight on the effect of SVA to the indoor and one sun performance is provided by advanced optoelectronic characterization techniques, which shows that the mobility-lifetime products as a function of charge carrier density can be correlated well to the performance at different light levels. Our results suggest that organic photovoltaic cell could be promising as indoor power source for self-sustainable electronics

Tail state limited photocurrent collection of thick photoactive layers in organic solar cells

We analyse organic solar cells with four different photoactive blends exhibiting differing dependencies of short-circuit current upon photoactive layer thickness. These blends and devices are analysed by transient optoelectronic techniques of carrier kinetics and densities, air photoemission spectroscopy of material energetics, Kelvin probe measurements of work function, Mott-Schottky analyses of apparent doping density and by device modelling. We conclude that, for the device series studied, the photocurrent loss with thick active layers is primarily associated with the accumulation of photo-generated charge carriers in intra-bandgap tail states. This charge accumulation screens the device internal electrical field, preventing efficient charge collection. Purification of one studied donor polymer is observed to reduce tail state distribution and density and increase the maximal photoactive thickness for efficient operation. Our work suggests that selecting organic photoactive layers with a narrow distribution of tail states is a key requirement for the fabrication of efficient, high photocurrent, thick organic solar cells

Non-Equilibrium Charge Motion in Organic Solar Cells

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices based on semiconducting polymers and small molecules allow for a low cost alternative to inorganic solar cells. Recent developments show power conversion efficiencies as high as 10-12%, highlighting the potential of this technology. Nevertheless, further improvements are necessary to achieve commercialization. To a large extent the performance of these devices is dictated by their ability to extract the photo-generated charge, which is related to the charge carrier mobility. Various time-resolved and steady-state techniques are available to probe the charge carrier mobility in OPVs but often lead to different mobility values for one and the same system. Despite such conflicting observations it is generally assumed that charge transport in OPV devices can be described by well-defined charge carrier mobilities, typically obtained using a single steady-state technique. This thesis shows that the relevance of such well-defined mobilities for the charge separation and extraction processes is very limited. Although different transient techniques probe different time scales after photogeneration, they are mutually consistent as they probe the same physical mechanism governing charge motion – gradual thermalization of the photo-generated carriers in the disorder broadened density of states (DOS). The photo-generated carriers gradually lose their excess energy during transport to the extracting electrodes, but not immediately. Typically not all excess energy is dissipated as the photo-generated carriers tend to be extracted from the OPV device before reaching quasi-equilibrium. Carrier motion is governed by thermalization, leading to a time-dependent carrier mobility that is significantly higher than the steady-state mobility. This picture is confirmed by several transient techniques: Time-resolved Terahertz Spectroscopy (TRTS), Time-resolved Microwave Conductance (TRMC) combined with Transient Absorption (TA), electrical extraction of photo-induced charges (photo-CELIV). The connection between transient and steady-state mobility measurements (space-charge limited conductivity, SCLC) is described. Unification of transient opto-electric techniques to probe charge motion in OPVs is presented. Using transient experiments the distribution of extraction times of photo-generated charges in an operating OPV device has been determined and found to be strongly dispersive, spanning several decades in time. In view of the strong dispersion in extraction times the relevance of even a well-defined time-dependent mean mobility is limited. In OPVs a continuous ‘percolating’ donor network is often considered necessary for efficient hole extraction, whereas if the network is discontinuous, hole transport is thought to deteriorate significantly, limiting device performance. Here, it is shown that even highly diluted donor sites (5.7-10 %) in a buckminsterfullerene (C60) matrix enable reasonably efficient hole transport. Using transient measurements it is demonstrated that hole transport between isolated donor sites can occur by long-range hole tunneling (over distances of ~4 nm) through several C60 molecules – even a discontinuous donor network enables hole transpor