TY - JOUR A1 - Nikolis, Vasileios C. A1 - Benduhn, Johannes A1 - Holzmueller, Felix A1 - Piersimoni, Fortunato A1 - Lau, Matthias A1 - Zeika, Olaf A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Koerner, Christian A1 - Spoltore, Donato A1 - Vandewal, Koen T1 - Reducing Voltage Losses in Cascade Organic Solar Cells while Maintaining High External Quantum Efficiencies JF - dvanced energy materials N2 - 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. KW - energy losses KW - nonradiative recombination KW - open-circuit voltage KW - organic solar cells KW - voltage losses Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201700855 SN - 1614-6832 SN - 1614-6840 VL - 7 SP - 122 EP - 136 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Christian Michael A1 - Zu, Fengshuo A1 - Paulke, Andreas A1 - Perdigon-Toro, Lorena A1 - Koch, Norbert A1 - Neher, Dieter T1 - Reduced Interface-Mediated Recombination for High Open-Circuit Voltages in CH3NH3PbI3 Solar Cells JF - Advanced materials N2 - Perovskite solar cells with all-organic transport layers exhibit efficiencies rivaling their counterparts that employ inorganic transport layers, while avoiding high-temperature processing. Herein, it is investigated how the choice of the fullerene derivative employed in the electron-transporting layer of inverted perovskite cells affects the open-circuit voltage (V-OC). It is shown that nonradiative recombination mediated by the electron-transporting layer is the limiting factor for the V-OC in the cells. By inserting an ultrathin layer of an insulating polymer between the active CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite and the fullerene, an external radiative efficiency of up to 0.3%, a V-OC as high as 1.16 V, and a power conversion efficiency of 19.4% are realized. The results show that the reduction of nonradiative recombination due to charge-blocking at the perovskite/organic interface is more important than proper level alignment in the search for ideal selective contacts toward high V-OC and efficiency. KW - electron-transport layers KW - nonradiative recombination KW - open-circuit voltage KW - perovskite solar cells Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201700159 SN - 0935-9648 SN - 1521-4095 VL - 29 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -