Impact of charge transport on current–voltage characteristics and power-conversion efficiency of organic solar cells

Uli Würfel (), Dieter Neher (), Annika Spies and Steve Albrecht
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Uli Würfel: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
Dieter Neher: Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam
Annika Spies: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
Steve Albrecht: Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract This work elucidates the impact of charge transport on the photovoltaic properties of organic solar cells. Here we show that the analysis of current–voltage curves of organic solar cells under illumination with the Shockley equation results in values for ideality factor, photocurrent and parallel resistance, which lack physical meaning. Drift-diffusion simulations for a wide range of charge-carrier mobilities and illumination intensities reveal significant carrier accumulation caused by poor transport properties, which is not included in the Shockley equation. As a consequence, the separation of the quasi Fermi levels in the organic photoactive layer (internal voltage) differs substantially from the external voltage for almost all conditions. We present a new analytical model, which considers carrier transport explicitly. The model shows excellent agreement with full drift-diffusion simulations over a wide range of mobilities and illumination intensities, making it suitable for realistic efficiency predictions for organic solar cells.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7951

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