Reverse dark current in organic photodetectors and the major role of traps as source of noise

Jonas Kublitski (), Andreas Hofacker (), Bahman K. Boroujeni, Johannes Benduhn, Vasileios C. Nikolis, Christina Kaiser, Donato Spoltore, Hans Kleemann, Axel Fischer, Frank Ellinger, Koen Vandewal () and Karl Leo
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Jonas Kublitski: Technische Universität Dresden
Andreas Hofacker: Technische Universität Dresden
Bahman K. Boroujeni: Technische Universität Dresden
Johannes Benduhn: Technische Universität Dresden
Vasileios C. Nikolis: Technische Universität Dresden
Christina Kaiser: Swansea University
Donato Spoltore: Technische Universität Dresden
Hans Kleemann: Technische Universität Dresden
Axel Fischer: Technische Universität Dresden
Frank Ellinger: Technische Universität Dresden
Koen Vandewal: Hasselt University
Karl Leo: Technische Universität Dresden

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Organic photodetectors have promising applications in low-cost imaging, health monitoring and near-infrared sensing. Recent research on organic photodetectors based on donor–acceptor systems has resulted in narrow-band, flexible and biocompatible devices, of which the best reach external photovoltaic quantum efficiencies approaching 100%. However, the high noise spectral density of these devices limits their specific detectivity to around 1013 Jones in the visible and several orders of magnitude lower in the near-infrared, severely reducing performance. Here, we show that the shot noise, proportional to the dark current, dominates the noise spectral density, demanding a comprehensive understanding of the dark current. We demonstrate that, in addition to the intrinsic saturation current generated via charge-transfer states, dark current contains a major contribution from trap-assisted generated charges and decreases systematically with decreasing concentration of traps. By modeling the dark current of several donor–acceptor systems, we reveal the interplay between traps and charge-transfer states as source of dark current and show that traps dominate the generation processes, thus being the main limiting factor of organic photodetectors detectivity.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20856-z

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