Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV24)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.hopv.2024.174
Publication date: 6th February 2024
The development of new, high performance organic semiconductor materials has led to increases in power-conversion efficiency of organic solar cells to reach almost 20%. Some of the best performing systems appear to generate photocurrents without the need for a type II donor acceptor charge separating heterojunction. These impressive advances have raised the question of whether the traditional ‘bulk heterojunction’ architecture is essential for photovoltaic work.
In this work, we use device physics, modelling and spectroscopy to explore the mechanisms of free charge generation in different types of organic semiconductor system. We investigate devices based on single organic components, controlled heterojunction architectures, and more complex macromolecular structures where the positions of donor and acceptor components are chemically constrained. By combining experimental characterisation under varying conditions (field, temperature, excitation) with molecular and device-level calculations, we endeavour to relate exciton and charge dissociation efficiency in single-component devices to molecular parameters.