Analytical Model for Voltage-Dependent Photo and Dark Currents in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells

Mesbahus Saleheen, Salman M. Arnab and M. Z. Kabir
Additional contact information
Mesbahus Saleheen: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 Blvd. de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada
Salman M. Arnab: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 Blvd. de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada
M. Z. Kabir: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 Blvd. de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8, Canada

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: A physics-based explicit mathematical model for the external voltage-dependent forward dark current in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells is developed by considering Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination and solving the continuity equations for both electrons and holes. An analytical model for the external voltage-dependent photocurrent in BHJ organic solar cells is also proposed by incorporating exponential photon absorption, dissociation efficiency of bound electron-hole pairs (EHPs), carrier trapping, and carrier drift and diffusion in the photon absorption layer. Modified Braun’s model is used to compute the electric field-dependent dissociation efficiency of the bound EHPs. The overall net current is calculated considering the actual solar spectrum. The mathematical models are verified by comparing the model calculations with various published experimental results. We analyze the effects of the contact properties, blend compositions, charge carrier transport properties (carrier mobility and lifetime), and cell design on the current-voltage characteristics. The power conversion efficiency of BHJ organic solar cells mostly depends on electron transport properties of the acceptor layer. The results of this paper indicate that improvement of charge carrier transport (both mobility and lifetime) and dissociation of bound EHPs in organic blend are critically important to increase the power conversion efficiency of the BHJ solar cells.

Keywords: organic solar cells; analytical model; current-voltage characteristics; dark current; trapping/recombination; charge collection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/412/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/412/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:9:y:2016:i:6:p:412-:d:70856

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().