Detailed balance limit of power conversion efficiency for organic photovoltaics

Abstract

A fundamental difference between inorganic photovoltaic (IPV) and organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells is that charges are generated at the interface in OPV cells, while free charges can be generated in the bulk in IPV cells. In OPV cells, charge generation involves intrinsic energy losses to dissociate excitons at the interface between the donor and acceptor. By taking into account the energy losses, we show the theoretical limits of the power conversion efficiency set by radiative recombination of the carriers on the basis of the detailed balance relation between radiation from the cell and black-body radiation.