Intrinsic non-radiative voltage losses in fullerene-based organic solar cells

Johannes Benduhn (), Kristofer Tvingstedt (), Fortunato Piersimoni, Sascha Ullbrich, Yeli Fan, Manuel Tropiano, Kathryn A. McGarry, Olaf Zeika, Moritz K. Riede, Christopher J. Douglas, Stephen Barlow, Seth R. Marder, Dieter Neher, Donato Spoltore and Koen Vandewal ()
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Johannes Benduhn: Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) and Institute for Applied Physics, Technische Universität Dresden
Kristofer Tvingstedt: Experimental Physics VI, Julius-Maximilian University of Würzburg
Fortunato Piersimoni: Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam
Sascha Ullbrich: Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) and Institute for Applied Physics, Technische Universität Dresden
Yeli Fan: Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology
Manuel Tropiano: Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford
Kathryn A. McGarry: University of Minnesota
Olaf Zeika: Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) and Institute for Applied Physics, Technische Universität Dresden
Moritz K. Riede: University of Oxford
Christopher J. Douglas: University of Minnesota
Stephen Barlow: Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology
Seth R. Marder: Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dieter Neher: Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam
Donato Spoltore: Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) and Institute for Applied Physics, Technische Universität Dresden
Koen Vandewal: Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) and Institute for Applied Physics, Technische Universität Dresden

Nature Energy, 2017, vol. 2, issue 6, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Organic solar cells demonstrate external quantum efficiencies and fill factors approaching those of conventional photovoltaic technologies. However, as compared with the optical gap of the absorber materials, their open-circuit voltage is much lower, largely due to the presence of significant non-radiative recombination. Here, we study a large data set of published and new material combinations and find that non-radiative voltage losses decrease with increasing charge-transfer-state energies. This observation is explained by considering non-radiative charge-transfer-state decay as electron transfer in the Marcus inverted regime, being facilitated by a common skeletal molecular vibrational mode. Our results suggest an intrinsic link between non-radiative voltage losses and electron-vibration coupling, indicating that these losses are unavoidable. Accordingly, the theoretical upper limit for the power conversion efficiency of single-junction organic solar cells would be reduced to about 25.5% and the optimal optical gap increases to 1.45–1.65 eV, that is, 0.2–0.3 eV higher than for technologies with minimized non-radiative voltage losses.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2017.53

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