Mapping the energy level alignment at donor/acceptor interfaces in non-fullerene organic solar cells

Xian’e Li (), Qilun Zhang, Jianwei Yu, Ye Xu, Rui Zhang, Chuanfei Wang, Huotian Zhang, Simone Fabiano, Xianjie Liu, Jianhui Hou, Feng Gao and Mats Fahlman ()
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Xian’e Li: Linköping University
Qilun Zhang: Linköping University
Jianwei Yu: Linköping University
Ye Xu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Rui Zhang: Linköping University
Chuanfei Wang: Linköping University
Huotian Zhang: Linköping University
Simone Fabiano: Linköping University
Xianjie Liu: Linköping University
Jianhui Hou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Feng Gao: Linköping University
Mats Fahlman: Linköping University

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Energy level alignment (ELA) at donor (D) -acceptor (A) heterojunctions is essential for understanding the charge generation and recombination process in organic photovoltaic devices. However, the ELA at the D-A interfaces is largely underdetermined, resulting in debates on the fundamental operating mechanisms of high-efficiency non-fullerene organic solar cells. Here, we systematically investigate ELA and its depth-dependent variation of a range of donor/non-fullerene-acceptor interfaces by fabricating and characterizing D-A quasi bilayers and planar bilayers. In contrast to previous assumptions, we observe significant vacuum level (VL) shifts existing at the D-A interfaces, which are demonstrated to be abrupt, extending over only 1–2 layers at the heterojunctions, and are attributed to interface dipoles induced by D-A electrostatic potential differences. The VL shifts result in reduced interfacial energetic offsets and increased charge transfer (CT) state energies which reconcile the conflicting observations of large energy level offsets inferred from neat films and large CT energies of donor - non-fullerene-acceptor systems.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29702-w

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