Abstract
Organic solar cells have many merits, including low cost and the ability to cover large and flexible substrates, yet there is much room to improve them. To maximize their efficiency, this study investigates the effects of surface recombination in a model system, in which the work function of electrode contacts is varied via oxygen-plasma treatment. The authors explain how changing the properties of the contact has a profound effect not only on device efficiency, but also on the interpretation of optoelectronic measurements of these devices.
Highlights
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) have the potential to provide a low-cost, lightweight, and flexible alternative to solar cells based on inorganic technologies, especially for the fabrication of large area devices [1,2]
The size of the observed effect demonstrates the importance of understanding how electrodes impact on device performance and INFLUENCE OF SURFACE RECOMBINATION ON CHARGE
We investigate the effects of surface recombination on measurements of recombination kinetics in OPV by combining charge extraction (CE) and transient photovoltage (TPV) experimental techniques with 1D drift-diffusion simulations
Summary
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) have the potential to provide a low-cost, lightweight, and flexible alternative to solar cells based on inorganic technologies, especially for the fabrication of large area devices [1,2]. The performance and stability of OPV has steadily improved in recent years; at approximately 10% it is still inferior to that of inorganic technologies [3,4,5,6]. The development of electrode materials to improve performance, processing, and stability has received extensive interest recently [7,8]; the potential impact of recombination at the active-layer–electrode interfaces is yet to be fully understood. We employ nickel oxide as an anode interlayer in OPV devices and address how changes in cell open-circuit voltage VOC, caused by modulation of the NiO work function, can be understood in terms of changes in charge-carrier density distributions and lifetimes in the active layer of the device. A key parameter defining photovoltaic performance is the open-circuit voltage VOC. The VOC is often related to losses due to nongeminate recombination of separated charge carriers at
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