Proceedings of nanoGe Spring Meeting 2022 (NSM22)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nsm.2022.111
Publication date: 7th February 2022
The device performance of organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaic cells is ultimately derived from processes taking place between excitons, charge-transfer states, and free charge carriers. In fullerene-acceptor-based BHJ systems, characterized by large donor-acceptor energy level offsets, the photovoltage is critically limited by the energetics and kinetics of CT states [1]. However, this picture has been challenged with the emergence of nonfullerene-acceptor-based systems with low energy offsets, where the role of excitons becomes important [2]. In this work, factors limiting key device parameters in organic BHJ solar cells based on low-offset systems are investigated. We find that photovoltaic parameters are not only limited by the energetics but also critically determined by the relative kinetics between different species [3,4]. Finally, based on these considerations, the corresponding power conversion efficiency limits are predicted. These findings provide insights into the operation of state-of-art non-fullerene organic photovoltaic cells with low offsets, paving the way for organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies exceeding 20%.