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Blending organic molecules to tune their energy levels is currently being investigated as an approach to engineer the bulk and interfacial optoelectronic properties of organic semiconductors. It has been proven that the ionization energy and electron affinity can be equally shifted in the same direction by electrostatic effects controlled by blending similar halogenated derivatives with different energetics. Here we show that the energy gap of organic semiconductors can also be tuned by blending. We use oligothiophenes with different numbers of thiophene rings as an example and investigate their structure and electronic properties. Photoelectron spectroscopy and inverse photoelectron spectroscopy show tunability of the single-particle gap, with the optical gaps showing similar, but smaller, effects. Theoretical analysis shows that this tuning is mainly caused by a change in the dielectric constant with blend ratio. Further studies will explore the practical impact of this energy-level engineering strategy for optoelectronic devices.

Efficient exciton dissociation and subsequent generation of free charge carriers at the organic donor-acceptor interface requires a number of electron-transfer processes. It is a common view that these steps result in an unavoidable energy loss in organic photovoltaic devices that is not present in other types of solar cells. The currently best performing organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies over 16% challenge this view, and no interfacial charge-transfer states with energy significantly lower than the strongly absorbing singlet states are detected within the gap of the used donor and acceptor materials. This Perspective will discuss implications, the remaining sources of energy loss, and open questions to be solved to achieve power conversion efficiencies over 20%.

Charge generation and recombination processes at interfaces between electron donating (donor, D) and accepting molecules (acceptor, A) are mediated by intermolecular charge-transfer (CT) states. Si...

A significant number of organic electronic devices rely on blends of electron-donating and electron-accepting molecules. In bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics, the nanoscopic phase behavior of the two individual components within the photoactive layer has a major impact on the charge separation and charge transport properties. For polymer:fullerene solar cells, it has been hypothesized that an increased accessibility of the electron-deficient monomer unit in push-pull type low bandgap polymers allows for fullerene ‘docking’. The close proximity of electron donor and acceptor molecules enables more efficient charge transfer, which is beneficial for the device efficiency. With this in mind, we synthesized a series of PBDTTPD [poly(benzodithiophene-thienopyrroledione)] low bandgap copolymers with varying side chains. Solar cells were fabricated for all polymers and the device characteristics were compared. The combination of proton wideline solid-state NMR (ssNMR) relaxometry and sensitive external quantum efficiency (sEQE) measurements was shown to provide essential information on donor-acceptor interactions and phase separation in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics. The reduced charge transfer state absorption and the observed phase separation of crystalline PC71BM domains for the polymers containing the most accessible methyl-TPD unit indicate a diminished contact between donor and acceptor, leading to a loss in performance.

An understanding of the factors limiting the open-circuit voltage (V-oc) and related photon energy loss mechanisms is critical to increase the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of small-molecule organic solar cells (OSCs), especially those with near-infrared (NIR) absorbers. In this work, two NIR boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) molecules are characterized for application in planar (PHJ) and bulk (BHJ) heterojunction OSCs. When two H atoms are substituted by F atoms on the peripheral phenyl rings of the molecules, the molecular aggregation type in the thin film changes from the H-type to J-type. For PHJ devices, the nonradiative voltage loss of 0.35 V in the J-aggregated BODIPY is lower than that of 0.49 V in the H-aggregated device. In BHJ devices with a nonradiative voltage loss of 0.35 V, a PCE of 5.5% is achieved with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) maximum of 68% at 700 nm.

The involvement of charge-transfer (CT) states in the photogeneration and recombination of charge carriers has been an important focus of study within the organic photovoltaic community. In this work, we investigate the molecular factors determining the mechanism of photocurrent generation in low-donor-content organic solar cells, where the active layer is composed of vacuum-deposited C

Extraction barriers are usually undesired in organic semiconductor devices since they lead to reduced device performance. In this work, we intentionally introduce an extraction barrier for holes, leading to nonlinear photoresponse. The effect is utilized in near-infrared (NIR) organic photodetectors (OPDs) to perform distance measurements, as delineated in the focus-induced photoresponse technique (FIP). The extraction barrier is introduced by inserting an anodic interlayer with deeper highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), compared to the donor material, into a well-performing OPD. With increasing irradiance, achieved by decreasing the illumination spot area on the OPD, a higher number of holes pile up at the anode, counteracting the built-in field and increasing charge-carrier recombination in the bulk. This intended nonlinear response of the photocurrent to the irradiance allows determining the distance between the OPD and the light source. We demonstrate fully vacuum-deposited organic NIR optical distance photodetectors with a detection area up to 256 mm2 and detection wavelengths at 850 and 1060 nm. Such NIR OPDs have a high potential for precise, robust, low-cost, and simple optical distance measurement setups.

Organic solar cells are approaching power conversion efficiencies of other thin‐film technologies. However, in order to become truly market competitive, the still substantial voltage losses need to be reduced. Here, the synthesis and characterization of four novel arylamine‐based push‐pull molecular donors was described, two of them exhibiting a methyl group at the para‐position of the external phenyl ring of the arylamine block. Assessing the charge‐transfer state properties and the effects of methylation on the open‐circuit voltage of the device showed that devices based on methylated versions of the molecular donors exhibited reduced voltage losses due to decreased non‐radiative recombination. Modelling suggested that methylation resulted in a tighter interaction between donor and acceptor molecules, turning into a larger oscillator strength to the charge‐transfer states, thereby ensuing reduced non‐radiative decay rates., Structural tuning improves efficiency: Modification of the molecular structure of organic molecules allows to influence the performance of organic photovoltaic devices. Addition of a methyl group in the para‐position of the external phenyl ring leads to increase in open‐circuit voltage. Quantum‐chemical calculations attribute this effect to the increase of the oscillator strength of the electronic transition between the donor and acceptor.

Organic solar cells usually utilise a heterojunction between electron-donating (D) and electron-accepting (A) materials to split excitons into charges. However, the use of D-A blends intrinsically limits the photovoltage and introduces morphological instability. Here, we demonstrate that polycrystalline films of chemically identical molecules offer a promising alternative and show that photoexcitation of α-sexithiophene (α-6T) films results in efficient charge generation. This leads to α-6T based homojunction organic solar cells with an external quantum efficiency reaching up to 44% and an open-circuit voltage of 1.61 V. Morphological, photoemission, and modelling studies show that boundaries between α-6T crystalline domains with different orientations generate an electrostatic landscape with an interfacial energy offset of 0.4 eV, which promotes the formation of hybridised exciton/charge-transfer states at the interface, dissociating efficiently into free charges. Our findings open new avenues for organic solar cell design where material energetics are tuned through molecular electrostatic engineering and mesoscale structural control., Though single-material organic solar cells are attractive for next-generation photovoltaic technologies, designing new materials with ideal properties remains a challenge. Here, the authors report the use of orientation-dependent molecular electrostatics to realise efficient homojunction devices.

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) with a performance comparable to that of conventional inorganic ones have recently been demonstrated for the visible regime. However, near-infrared photodetection has proven to be challenging and, to date, the true potential of organic semiconductors in this spectral range (800-2500 nm) remains largely unexplored. In this work, it is shown that the main factor limiting the specific detectivity (D*) is non-radiative recombination, which is also known to be the main contributor to open-circuit voltage losses. The relation between open-circuit voltage, dark current, and noise current is demonstrated using four bulk-heterojunction devices based on narrow-gap donor polymers. Their maximum achievableD* is calculated alongside a large set of devices to demonstrate an intrinsic upper limit ofD* as a function of the optical gap. It is concluded that OPDs have the potential to be a useful technology up to 2000 nm, given that high external quantum efficiencies can be maintained at these low photon energies. Vandewal, K (corresponding author), UHasselt Hasselt Univ, Inst Mat Res IMO, Agoralaan 1,Bldg D, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium ; IMEC, Associated Lab IMOMEC, Wetenschapspk 1, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium. Armin, A (corresponding author), Swansea Univ, Dept Phys, Singleton Pk, Swansea SA2 8PP, W Glam, Wales. ardalan.armin@swansea.ac.uk; koen.vandewal@uhasselt.be

Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based donor acceptor copolymers have gained a significant amount of research interest in the organic electronics community because of their high charge carrier mobilities in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and their ability to harvest near-infrared (NIR) photons in solar cells. In this study, we have synthesized four DPP based donor-acceptor copolymers with variations in the donor unit and the branching point of the solubilizing alkyl chains (at the second or sixth carbon position). Grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) results suggest that moving the branching point further away from the polymer backbone increases the tendency for aggregation and yields polymer phases with a higher degree of crystallinity (DoC). The polymers were blended with PC70BM and used as active layers in solar cells. A careful analysis of the energetics of the neat polymer and blend films reveals that the charge-transfer state energy (E-CT) of the blend films lies exceptionally close to the singlet energy of the donor (E-D*), indicating near zero electron transfer losses. The difference between the optical gap and open-circuit voltage (V-OC) is therefore determined to be due to rather high nonradiative 418 +/- 13 mV) and unavoidable radiative voltage losses (approximate to 255 +/- 8 mV). Even though the four materials have similar optical gaps, the short-circuit current density (J(SC)) covers a vast span from 7 to 18 mA cm(-2) for the best performing system. Using photoluminescence (PL) quenching and transient charge extraction techniques, we quantify geminate and nongeminate losses and find that fewer excitons reach the donor-acceptor interface in polymers with further away branching points due to larger aggregate sizes. In these material systems, the photogeneration is therefore mainly limited by exciton harvesting efficiency. The authors acknowledge support by the German Excellence Initiative via the Cluster of Excellence EXC 1056 "Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden" (cfaed). For the GIWAXS measurements, the authors acknowledge KMC-2 diffraction beamline of the Photon source BESSY-II, Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. Additionally, for TEM microscopy, the authors acknowledge Dr. Petr Formanek from the Leibniz-Institut fur Polymerforschung Dresden. T.E. acknowledges support by the German Alexander von Humboldt foundation. J.B., S.U., and K.V. acknowledge support from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProfile Projekt "Organische p-i-n Bauelemente 2.2" (03IPT602X). Furthermore, S.U. acknowledges support by the graduate academy of the TU Dresden, financed by the excellence initiative of the German federal and state governments. E.C.-F. and U.H. and D.N. acknowledge funding by the BMBF (UNVEIL, FKZ 13N13719) and the DFG (SFB 951 "HIOS").

The best performing organic solar cells (OSC) efficiently absorb photons and convert them to free charge carriers, which are subsequently collected at the electrodes. However, the energy lost in this process is much larger than for inorganic and perovskite solar cells, currently limiting the power conversion efficiency of OSCs to values slightly below 14%. To quantify energy losses, the open-circuit voltage of the solar cell is often compared to its optical gap. The latter is, however, not obvious to determine for organic materials which have broad absorption and emission bands, and is often done erroneously. Nevertheless, a deeper understanding of the energy loss mechanisms depends crucially on an accurate determination of the energies of the excited states involved in the photo-conversion process. This perspective therefore aims to summarize how the optical gap can be precisely determined, and how it relates to energy losses in organic photovoltaic materials. This work received funding from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProle Projekt “Organische p–i–n Bauelemente 2.2” (03IPT602X).

We have designed a small molecule based on benzothiadiazole-triphenylamine moieties (BTD-TPA(2)), composed of an electron-poor benzothiadiazole core with two electron-rich triphenylamine arms. BTD-TPA(2) was synthesized in a facile manner using a Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. The molecule was rationally designed to take advantage of the synergistic effect of BTD, which allows the formation of a favorable band gap material, and triphenylamine (TPA) moieties, which favour efficient hole extraction and transport properties. A thin layer of BTD-TPA(2) was placed between the photo-active DBP/C-70 layer stack and the MoOx electrical contact. With an optimized interlayer thickness of 35 nm, the attained photovoltaic properties were substantially superior to those of the reference devices. This has its origin in the dual functionality of BTD-TPA(2), i.e., efficient exciton blocking and improved hole extraction at the anode contact. The obtained results led to an improved power conversion efficiency of 5.66% for a vacuum deposited bilayer DBP/C-70 solar cell, which will be the new state of the art for bilayer DBP based solar cells. This project has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 607232 [THINFACE] and is partially supported by a European Research Council grant [MOLEMAT, 72630], as well as by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProfille project "Organische p-i-n Bauelemente 2.2' (803IPT602X).

Three furan-fused BODIPYs were synthesized with perfluorinated methyl, ethyl and n-propyl groups on the meso-carbon. They were obtained with high yields by reacting the furan-fused 2-carboxylpyrrole in corresponding perfluorinated acid and anhydride. With the increase in perfluorinated alkyl chain length, the molecular packing in the single crystal is influenced, showing increasing stacking distance and decreasing slope angle. All the BODIPYs were characterized as intense absorbers in near infrared region in solid state, peaking at similar to 800 nm with absorption coefficient of over 280 000 cm(-1). Facilitated by high thermal stability, the furan-fused BODIPYs were employed in vacuum-deposited organic solar cells as electron donors. All devices exhibit PCE over 6.0% with the EQE maximum reaching 70% at similar to 790 nm. The chemical modification of the BODIPY donors have certain influence on the active layer morphology, and the highest PCE of 6.4% was obtained with a notably high jsc of 13.6 mA cm(-2). Sensitive EQE and electroluminance studies indicated that the energy losses generated by the formation of a charge transfer state and the radiative recombination at the donor-acceptor interface were comparable in the range of 0.14-0.19 V, while non-radiative recombination energy loss of 0.38 V was the main energy loss route resulting in the moderate V-oc of 0.76 V.

We present organic near-infrared photodetectors based on the absorption of charge-transfer (CT) states at the zinc-phthalocyanine–C60 interface. By using a resonant optical cavity device architecture, we achieve a narrowband detection, centered around 1060 nm and well below (>200 nm) the optical gap of the neat materials. We measure transient photocurrent responses at wavelengths of 532 and 1064 nm, exciting dominantly the neat materials or the CT state, respectively, and obtain rise and fall times of a few nanoseconds at short circuit, independent of the excitation wavelength. The current transients are modeled with time-dependent drift-diffusion simulations of electrons and holes which reconstruct the photocurrent signal, including capacitance and series resistance effects. The hole mobility of the donor material is identified as the limiting factor for the high-frequency response. With this knowledge, we demonstrate a new device concept, which balances hole and electron extraction times and achieves a ...

Organic spectrometers are attractive for biomedicine and industrial process monitoring but are currently limited in terms of spectral selectivity and the accessible wavelength range. Here, we achieve narrowband enhancement of the below-gap near-infrared response of charge-transfer (CT) excitations in organic photodiodes by introducing them into a high-quality microcavity. The device architecture includes a nonconductive distributed Bragg reflector and thin metal electrodes, leading to the formation of sharp Tamm plasmon-polariton resonances. We demonstrate how to tailor the arising multimode spectra for spectroscopic photodetectors and present efficient single-resonance devices with remarkable line widths below 22 nm, which are partially transparent for visible wavelengths. Taking advantage of the spectrally broad CT band, we vary the resonator thickness to provide a proof of concept that benefits from the spectral selectivity of our high-quality microcavities. Finally, utilizing transfer-matrix calculati...

In disordered organic semiconductors, the transfer of a rather localized charge carrier from one site to another triggers a deformation of the molecular structure quantified by the intramolecular relaxation energy. A similar structural relaxation occurs upon population of intermolecular charge-transfer (CT) states formed at organic electron donor (D)-acceptor (A) interfaces. Weak CT absorption bands for D A complexes occur at photon energies below the optical gaps of both the donors and the C-60 acceptor as a result of optical transitions from the neutral ground state to the ionic CT state. In this work, we show that temperature-activated intramolecular vibrations of the ground state play a major role in determining the line shape of such CT absorption bands. This allows us to extract values for the relaxation energy related to the geometry change from neutral to ionic CT complexes. Experimental values for the relaxation energies of 20 D:C-60 CT complexes correlate with values calculated within density functional theory. These results provide an experimental method for determining the polaron relaxation energy in solid-state organic D-A blends and show the importance of a reduced relaxation energy, which we introduce to characterize thermally activated CT processes. This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProfille project "Organische p-i-n Bauelemente 2.2". F.O. would like to thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) for financial support (Grant OR 349/1). This work was partly supported by the DFG within the Cluster of Excellence "Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden." F.P. and D.N. acknowledge funding by the DFG via the SFB 951 "HIOS". T.V. acknowledges the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT) for funding his Ph.D. The work at Georgia Tech was supported by the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research Award No. N00014-14-1-0580 (CAOP MURI) and through a state-sponsored scholarship for graduate students to Y.F. from the China Scholarship Council. We acknowledge the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at TU Dresden for computational resources. We thank Prof. Bauerle from the University of Ulm for the supply of DH4T and DH6T and Markus Hummert for P4-Ph4-DIP and BP-Bodipy.

Organic solar cells are thought to suffer from poor thermal stability of the active layer nanostructure, a common belief that is based on the extensive work that has been carried out on fullerene-based systems. We show that a widely studied non-fullerene acceptor, the indacenodithienothiophene-based acceptor ITIC, crystallizes in a profoundly different way as compared to fullerenes. Although fullerenes are frozen below the glass-transition temperature T-g of the photovoltaic blend, ITIC can undergo a glass-crystal transition considerably below its high T-g of similar to 180 degrees C. Nanoscopic crystallites of a low-temperature polymorph are able to form through a diffusion-limited crystallization process. The resulting fine-grained nanostructure does not evolve further with time and hence is characterized by a high degree of thermal stability. Instead, above T-g, the low temperature polymorph melts, and micrometer-sized crystals of a high-temperature polymorph develop, enabled by more rapid diffusion and hence long-range mass transport. This leads to the same detrimental decrease in photovoltaic performance that is known to occur also in the case of fullerene-based blends. Besides explaining the superior thermal stability of non-fullerene blends at relatively high temperatures, our work introduces a new rationale for the design of bulk heterojunctions that is not based on the selection of high-T-g materials per se but diffusion-limited crystallization. The planar structure of ITIC and potentially other non-fullerene acceptors readily facilitates the desired glass-crystal transition, which constitutes a significant advantage over fullerenes, and may pave the way for truly stable organic solar cells. We acknowledge financial support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through the project "Mastering Morphology for Solution-borne Electronics", the Swedish Research Council (grant agreement no. 2016-06146), and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (grant agreement no. RMA15-0052). We thank the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), supported by the NSF under award DMR-1332208, for providing time for GIWAXS measurements. J.B. and K.V. acknowledge funding from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProfile project "Organische p-i-n Bauelemente 2.2" (03IPT602X).

Intermolecular charge-transfer states at the interface between electron donating (D) and accepting (A) materials are crucial for the operation of organic solar cells but can also be exploited for organic light-emitting diodes(1,2). Non-radiative charge-transfer state decay is dominant in state-of-the-art D-A-based organic solar cells and is responsible for large voltage losses and relatively low power-conversion efficiencies as well as electroluminescence external quantum yields in the 0.01-0.0001% range(3,4). In contrast, the electroluminescence external quantum yield reaches up to 16% in D-A-based organic light-emitting diodes(5-7). Here, we show that proper control of charge-transfer state properties allows simultaneous occurrence of a high photovoltaic and emission quantum yield within a single, visible-light-emitting D-A system. This leads to ultralow-emission turn-on voltages as well as significantly reduced voltage losses upon solar illumination. These results unify the description of the electro-optical properties of charge-transfer states in organic optoelectronic devices and foster the use of organic D-A blends in energy conversion applications involving visible and ultraviolet photons(8-11). This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProfile project 'Organische p-i-n Bauelemente 2.2' (03IPT602X) and by the German Research Foundation (DFG) project Photogen (VA 1035/5-1). X.J. and Y.L. acknowledge support from the China Scholarship Council (nos. 201706140127 and 201506920047, respectively). The authors also acknowledge the DFG for supporting K.T. (project 382633022 'RECOLPER'), F.P., S.Ro. and D.N. (SFB 951 'HIOS') and A.F. (RE 3198/6-1 'EFOD').

Fluorine-containing donor molecules TFTF, CNTF and PRTF are designed and isomer selectively synthesized for application in vacuum-deposited organic solar cells. These molecules comprise a donor acceptor molecular architecture incorporating thiophene and benzothiadiazole derivatives as the electron-donating and electron-withdrawing moieties, respectively. As opposed to previously reported materials from this class, PRTF can be purified by vacuum sublimation at moderate to high yields because of its higher volatility and better stabilization due to a stronger intramolecular hydrogen bond, as compared to TFTF and CNTF. The UV-vis absorption spectra of the three donors show an intense broadband absorption between 500 nm and 800 nm with, similar positions of their frontier energy levels. The photophysical properties of the three donor molecules are thoroughly tested and optimized in bulk heterojunction solar cells with C-60 as acceptor. PRTF shows the best performance, yielding power conversion efficiencies of up to 3.8%. Moreover, the voltage loss for the PRTF device due to the non radiative recombination of free charge carriers is exceptionally low (0.26 V) as compared to typical values for organic solar cells (>0.34V). (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Organic materials for near-infrared (NIR) photodetection are in the focus for developing organic optical-sensing devices. The choice of materials for bulk-type organic photodetectors is limited due to effects like high nonradiative recombination rates for low-gap materials. Here, an organic Schottky barrier photodetector with an integrated plasmonic nanohole electrode is proposed, enabling structure-dependent, sub-bandgap photodetection in the NIR. Photons are detected via internal photoemission (IPE) process over a metal/organic semiconductor Schottky barrier. The efficiency of IPE is improved by exciting localized surface plasmon resonances, which are further enhanced by coupling to an out-of-plane Fabry–Perot cavity within the metal/organic/metal device configuration. The device allows large on/off ratio (>1000) and the selective control of individual pixels by modulating the Schottky barrier height. The concept opens up new design and application possibilities for organic NIR photodetectors.

Blending organic electron donors and acceptors yields intermolecular charge-transfer states with additional optical transitions below their optical gaps. In organic photovoltaic devices, such states play a crucial role and limit the operating voltage. Due to its extremely weak nature, direct intermolecular charge-transfer absorption often remains undetected and unused for photocurrent generation. Here, we use an optical microcavity to increase the typically negligible external quantum efficiency in the spectral region of charge-transfer absorption by more than 40 times, yielding values over 20%. We demonstrate narrowband detection with spectral widths down to 36 nm and resonance wavelengths between 810 and 1,550 nm, far below the optical gap of both donor and acceptor. The broad spectral tunability via a simple variation of the cavity thickness makes this innovative, flexible and potentially visibly transparent device principle highly suitable for integrated low-cost spectroscopic near-infrared photodetection., Interfaces of organic donor-acceptor blends provide intermolecular charge-transfer states with red-shifted but weak absorption. By introducing an optical micro-cavity; Siegmund et al., enhance their photoresponse to achieve narrowband NIR photodetection with broad spectral tunability.

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.

High photon energy losses limit the open-circuit voltage (V-OC) and power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, an optimization route is presented which increases the V-OC by reducing the interfacial area between donor (D) and acceptor (A). This optimization route concerns a cascade device architecture in which the introduction of discontinuous interlayers between alpha-sexithiophene (alpha-6T) (D) and chloroboron subnaphthalocyanine (SubNc) (A) increases the V-OC of an alpha-6T/SubNc/SubPc fullerene-free cascade OSC from 0.98 V to 1.16 V. This increase of 0.18 V is attributed solely to the suppression of nonradiative recombination at the D-A interface. By accurately measuring the optical gap (E-opt) and the energy of the charge-transfer state (E-CT) of the studied OSC, a detailed analysis of the overall voltage losses is performed. E-opt - qV(OC) losses of 0.58 eV, which are among the lowest observed for OSCs, are obtained. Most importantly, for the V-OC-optimized devices, the low-energy (700 nm) external quantum efficiency (EQE) peak remains high at 79%, despite a minimal driving force for charge separation of less than 10 meV. This work shows that low-voltage losses can be combined with a high EQE in organic photovoltaic devices.

In organic solar cells continuous donor and acceptor networks are considered necessary for charge extraction, whereas discontinuous neat phases and molecularly mixed donor–acceptor phases are generally regarded as detrimental. However, the impact of different levels of domain continuity, purity, and donor–acceptor mixing on charge transport remains only semiquantitatively described. Here, cosublimed donor–acceptor mixtures, where the distance between the donor sites is varied in a controlled manner from homogeneously diluted donor sites to a continuous donor network are studied. Using transient measurements, spanning from sub-picoseconds to microseconds photogenerated charge motion is measured in complete photovoltaic devices, to show that even highly diluted donor sites (5.7%–10% molar) in a buckminsterfullerene matrix enable hole transport. Hopping between isolated donor sites can occur by long-range hole tunneling through several buckminsterfullerene molecules, over distances of up to ≈4 nm. Hence, these results question the relevance of “pristine” phases and whether a continuous interpenetrating donor–acceptor network is the ideal morphology for charge transport. Funding agencies: German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProfille project "Organische p-i-n Bauelemente 2.2"; Research Council of Lithuania [MIP-85/2015]; Science Council of Sweden; Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation; Wallenberg Scholar

The nanoscale morphology of the bulk heterojunction absorber layer in an organic solar cell (OSC) is of key importance for its efficiency. The morphology of high performance vacuum-processed, small molecule OSCs based on oligothiophene derivatives (DCV5T-Me) blended with C60 on various length scales is studied. The analytical electron microscopic techniques such as scanning transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, highly sensitive external quantum efficiency measurements, and meso and nanoscale simulations are employed. Unique insights into the relation between processing, morphology, and efficiency of the final devices are obtained. It is shown that the connectivity of the oligothiophene-C60 network is independent of the material domain size. The decisive quantity controlling the internal quantum efficiency is the energetic disorder induced by material mixing, strongly limiting charge and exciton transport in the OSCs.

Conjugated polymers and small molecules based on alternating electron-donating (D) and electronaccepting (A) building blocks have led to state-of-the-art organic solar cell materials governing efficiencies beyond 10%. Unfortunately, the connection of D and A building blocks via cross-coupling reactions does not always proceed as planned, which can result in the generation of side products containing D-D or A-A homocoupling motifs. Previous studies have reported a reduced performance in polymer and small molecule solar cells when such defect structures are present. A general consensus on the impact of homocouplings on device performance is, however, still lacking as is a profound understanding of the underlying causes of the device deterioration. For differentiating the combined effect of molecular weight and homocouplings in polymer solar cells, a systematic study on a small molecule system (DTS(FBBTh2)2) is presented. The impact of homocouplings on nanomorphology, thermal, and electro-optical properties is investigated. It is demonstrated that small quantities of homocouplings (

Stability is now a critical factor in the commercialization of organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices. Both extrinsic stability to oxygen and water and intrinsic stability to light and heat in inert conditions must be achieved. Triplet states are known to be problematic in both cases, leading to singlet oxygen production or fullerene dimerization. The latter is thought to proceed from unquenched singlet excitons that have undergone intersystem crossing (ISC). Instead, we show that in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells the photo-degradation of C60 via photo-oligomerization occurs primarily via back-hole transfer (BHT) from a charge-transfer state to a C60 excited triplet state. We demonstrate this to be the principal pathway from a combination of steady-state optoelectronic measurements, time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance, and temperature-dependent transient absorption spectroscopy on model systems. BHT is a much more serious concern than ISC because it cannot be mitigated by improved exciton quenching, obtained for example by a finer BHJ morphology. As BHT is not specific to fullerenes, our results suggest that the role of electron and hole back transfer in the degradation of BHJs should also be carefully considered when designing stable OPV devices., The commercialisation of organic photovoltaic technology calls for research on material degradation mechanisms. Ramirez et al. show that triplet excitons produced by back charge transfer can significantly impact the photo-stability of fullerene-based devices even in the absence of water and oxygen.

The best organic solar cells (OSCs) achieve comparable peak external quantum efficiencies and fill factors as conventional photovoltaic devices. However, their voltage losses are much higher, in particular those due to nonradiative recombination. To investigate the possible role of triplet states on the donor or acceptor materials in this process, model systems comprising Zn- and Cu-phthalocyanine (Pc), as well as fluorinated versions of these donors, combined with C-60 as acceptor are studied. Fluorination allows tuning the energy level alignment between the lowest energy triplet state (T-1) and the charge-transfer (CT) state, while the replacement of Zn by Cu as the central metal in the Pcs leads to a largely enhanced spin-orbit coupling. Only in the latter case, a substantial influence of the triplet state on the nonradiative voltage losses is observed. In contrast, it is found that for a large series of typical OSC materials, the relative energy level alignment between T-1 and the CT state does not substantially affect nonradiative voltage losses. This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the InnoProfile project "Organische p-i-n Bauelemente 2.2" and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska Curie Grant agreement No. 722651 (SEPOMO). F.P. and D.N. acknowledge funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) via the SFB 951 "HIOS". The authors acknowledge Prof. K. Leo and V. C. Nikolis for fruitful discussions. The authors thank Dr. B. Beyer for supplying ZnF4Pc and CuF4Pc as well as Dr. M. Lau for the synthesis of F4CuPc. Additionally, the authors thank Prof. Bauerle from University of Ulm for the supply of DH4T, DH6T, and several DCV2-nT-R. Furthermore, the authors acknowledge Dr. F. Holzmueller, M. Saalfrank, and Dr. R. Meerheim for providing OSC devices for this study. Computational resources were provided by the Consortium des Equipements de Calcul Intensif (CECI), funded by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifiques de Belgique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under Grant No. 2.5020.11, as well as the Tier-1 supercomputer of the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, infrastructure funded by the Walloon Region under Grant Agreement No. 1117545. D.B. is a FNRS Research Director.