Simulation study of the losses and influences of geminate and bimolecular recombination on the performances of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells**Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (Grant No. A2012203016), the Science Fund from the Education Department of Hebei Province, China (Grant Nos. QN20131103 and Z2009114), the Doctor Foundation of Yanshan University, China (Grant No. B580),

Abstract

We use the method of device simulation to study the losses and influences of geminate and bimolecular recombinations on the performances and properties of the bulk heterojunction organic solar cells. We find that a fraction of electrons (holes) in the device are collected by anode (cathode). The direction of the corresponding current is opposite to the direction of photocurrent. And the current density increases with the bias increasing but decreases as bimolecular recombination (BR) or geminate recombination (GR) intensity increases. The maximum power, short circuit current, and fill factor display a stronger dependence on GR than on BR. While the influences of GR and BR on open circuit voltage are about the same. Our studies shed a new light on the loss mechanism and may provide a new way of improving the efficiency of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells.