TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shivhare, Rishi
A1  - Erdmann, Tim
A1  - Hoermann, Ulrich
A1  - Collado-Fregoso, Elisa
A1  - Zeiske, Stefan
A1  - Benduhn, Johannes
A1  - Ullbrich, Sascha
A1  - Huebner, Rene
A1  - Hambsch, Mike
A1  - Kiriy, Anton
A1  - Voit, Brigitte
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Vandewal, Koen
A1  - Mannsfeld, Stefan C. B.
T1  - Alkyl Branching Position in Diketopyrrolopyrrole Polymers
BT  - Interplay between Fibrillar Morphology and Crystallinity and Their Effect on Photogeneration and Recombination in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells
JF  - Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society
N2  - 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.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b02739
SN  - 0897-4756
SN  - 1520-5002
VL  - 30
IS  - 19
SP  - 6801
EP  - 6809
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Li, Hongguang
A1  - Babu, Sukumaran Santhosh
A1  - Turner, Sarah T.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Hollamby, Martin J.
A1  - Seki, Tomohiro
A1  - Yagai, Shiki
A1  - Deguchi, Yonekazu
A1  - Möhwald, Helmuth
A1  - Nakanishi, Takashi
T1  - Alkylated-C-60 based soft materials regulation of self-assembly and optoelectronic properties by chain branching
JF  - Journal of materials chemistry : C, Materials for optical and electronic devices
N2  - Derivatization of fullerene (C-60) with branched aliphatic chains softens C-60-based materials and enables the formation of thermotropic liquid crystals and room temperature nonvolatile liquids. This work demonstrates that by carefully tuning parameters such as type, number and substituent position of the branched chains, liquid crystalline C-60 materials with mesophase temperatures suited for photovoltaic cell fabrication and room temperature nonvolatile liquid fullerenes with tunable viscosity can be obtained. In particular, compound 1, with branched chains, exhibits a smectic liquid crystalline phase extending from 84 degrees C to room temperature. Analysis of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells with a ca. 100 nm active layer of compound 1 and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as an electron acceptor and an electron donor, respectively, reveals an improved performance (power conversion efficiency, PCE: 1.6 + 0.1%) in comparison with another compound, 10 (PCE: 0.5 + 0.1%). The latter, in contrast to 1, carries linear aliphatic chains and thus forms a highly ordered solid lamellar phase at room temperature. The solar cell performance of 1 blended with P3HT approaches that of PCBM/P3HT for the same active layer thickness. This indicates that C-60 derivatives bearing branched tails are a promising class of electron acceptors in soft (flexible) photovoltaic devices.
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3tc00066d
SN  - 2050-7526
VL  - 1
IS  - 10
SP  - 1943
EP  - 1951
PB  - Royal Society of Chemistry
CY  - Cambridge
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Li, Hongguang
A1  - Babu, Sukumaran Santhosh
A1  - Turner, Sarah T.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Hollamby, Martin J.
A1  - Tomohito, Seki
A1  - Yagai, Shiki
A1  - deguchi, Yonekazu
A1  - Möhwald, Helmuth
A1  - Nakanishi, Takashi
T1  - Alkylated-C60 based soft materials: regulation of self-assembly and optoelectronic properties by chain branching
N2  - Derivatization of fullerene (C60) with branched aliphatic chains softens C60-based materials and enables the formation of thermotropic liquid crystals and room temperature nonvolatile liquids. This work demonstrates that by carefully tuning parameters such as type, number and substituent position of the branched chains, liquid crystalline C60 materials with mesophase temperatures suited for photovoltaic cell fabrication and room temperature nonvolatile liquid fullerenes with tunable viscosity can be obtained. In particular, compound 1, with branched chains, exhibits a smectic liquid crystalline phase extending from 84°C to room temperature. Analysis of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells with a ca. 100 nm active layer of compound 1 and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as an electron acceptor and an electron donor, respectively, reveals an improved performance (power conversion efficiency, PCE: 1.6 ñ 0.1%) in comparison with another compound, 10 (PCE: 0.5 ñ 0.1%). The latter, in contrast to 1, carries linear aliphatic chains and thus forms a highly ordered solid lamellar phase at room temperature. The solar cell performance of 1 blended with P3HT approaches that of PCBM/P3HT for the same active layer thickness. This indicates that C60 derivatives bearing branched tails are a promising class of electron acceptors in soft (flexible) photovoltaic devices.
Y1  - 2013
UR  - http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2013/tc/c3tc00066d
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1039/C3TC00066D
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Srikhirin, T.
A1  - Cimrova, V.
A1  - Schiewe, B.
A1  - Tzolov, M.
A1  - Hagen, R.
A1  - Kostromine, S.
A1  - Bieringer, Thomas
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - An Investigation of the photoinduced changes of absoprtion of high-performance photoaddressable Polymers
Y1  - 2002
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pranav, Manasi
A1  - Hultzsch, Thomas
A1  - Musiienko, Artem
A1  - Sun, Bowen
A1  - Shukla, Atul
A1  - Jaiser, Frank
A1  - Shoaee, Safa
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Anticorrelated photoluminescence and free charge generation proves field-assisted exciton dissociation in low-offset PM6:Y5 organic solar cells
JF  - APL materials : high impact open access journal in functional materials science
N2  - Understanding the origin of inefficient photocurrent generation in organic solar cells with low energy offset remains key to realizing high-performance donor-acceptor systems. Here, we probe the origin of field-dependent free-charge generation and photoluminescence in wnon-fullereneacceptor (NFA)-based organic solar cells using the polymer PM6 and the NFA Y5-a non-halogenated sibling to Y6, with a smaller energetic offset to PM6. By performing time-delayed collection field (TDCF) measurements on a variety of samples with different electron transport layers and active layer thickness, we show that the fill factor and photocurrent are limited by field-dependent free charge generation in the bulk of the blend. We also introduce a new method of TDCF called m-TDCF to prove the absence of artifacts from non-geminate recombination of photogenerated and dark charge carriers near the electrodes. We then correlate free charge generation with steady-state photoluminescence intensity and find perfect anticorrelation between these two properties. Through this, we conclude that photocurrent generation in this low-offset system is entirely controlled by the field-dependent dissociation of local excitons into charge-transfer states. (c) 2023 Author(s).
Y1  - 2023
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0151580
SN  - 2166-532X
VL  - 11
IS  - 6
PB  - AIP Publishing
CY  - Melville
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stolterfoht, Martin
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Amir, Yohai
A1  - Paulke, Andreas
A1  - Perdigón-Toro, Lorena
A1  - Caprioglio, Pietro
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Approaching the fill factor Shockley-Queisser limit in stable, dopant-free triple cation perovskite solar cells
JF  - Energy & Environmental Science
N2  - Perovskite solar cells now compete with their inorganic counterparts in terms of power conversion efficiency, not least because of their small open-circuit voltage (V-OC) losses. A key to surpass traditional thin-film solar cells is the fill factor (FF). Therefore, more insights into the physical mechanisms that define the bias dependence of the photocurrent are urgently required. In this work, we studied charge extraction and recombination in efficient triple cation perovskite solar cells with undoped organic electron/hole transport layers (ETL/HTL). Using integral time of flight we identify the transit time through the HTL as the key figure of merit for maximizing the fill factor (FF) and efficiency. Complementarily, intensity dependent photocurrent and V-OC measurements elucidate the role of the HTL on the bias dependence of non-radiative and transport-related loss channels. We show that charge transport losses can be completely avoided under certain conditions, yielding devices with FFs of up to 84%. Optimized cells exhibit power conversion efficiencies of above 20% for 6 mm(2) sized pixels and 18.9% for a device area of 1 cm(2). These are record efficiencies for hybrid perovskite devices with dopant-free transport layers, highlighting the potential of this device technology to avoid charge-transport limitations and to approach the Shockley-Queisser limit.
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ee00899f
SN  - 1754-5692
SN  - 1754-5706
VL  - 10
SP  - 1530
EP  - 1539
PB  - Royal Society of Chemistry
CY  - Cambridge
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rengel, Heiko
A1  - Altmann, Markus
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Harrison, Craig B.
A1  - Myrick, Michael L.
A1  - Bunz, Uwe H. F.
T1  - Assignment of the optical transitions in 1,3- diethynylcyclobutadiene (cyclopentadienyl)cobalt oligomers
Y1  - 1999
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lange, Ilja
A1  - Blakesley, James C.
A1  - Frisch, Johannes
A1  - Vollmer, Antje
A1  - Koch, Norbert
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Band bending in conjugated polymer layers
JF  - Physical review letters
N2  - We use the Kelvin probe method to study the energy-level alignment of four conjugated polymers deposited on various electrodes. Band bending is observed in all polymers when the substrate work function exceeds critical values. Through modeling, we show that the band bending is explained by charge transfer from the electrodes into a small density of states that extends several hundred meV into the band gap. The energetic spread of these states is correlated with charge-carrier mobilities, suggesting that the same states also govern charge transport in the bulk of these polymers.
Y1  - 2011
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.216402
SN  - 0031-9007
VL  - 106
IS  - 21
PB  - American Physical Society
CY  - College Park
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Perdigón-Toro, Lorena
A1  - Zhang, Huotian
A1  - Markina, Anastaa si
A1  - Yuan, Jun
A1  - Hosseini, Seyed Mehrdad
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Zuo, Guangzheng
A1  - Stolterfoht, Martin
A1  - Zou, Yingping
A1  - Gao, Feng
A1  - Andrienko, Denis
A1  - Shoaee, Safa
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Barrierless free charge generation in the high-performance PM6:Y6 bulk heterojunction non-fullerene solar cell
JF  - Advanced materials
N2  - Organic solar cells are currently experiencing a second golden age thanks to the development of novel non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). Surprisingly, some of these blends exhibit high efficiencies despite a low energy offset at the heterojunction. Herein, free charge generation in the high-performance blend of the donor polymer PM6 with the NFA Y6 is thoroughly investigated as a function of internal field, temperature and excitation energy. Results show that photocurrent generation is essentially barrierless with near-unity efficiency, regardless of excitation energy. Efficient charge separation is maintained over a wide temperature range, down to 100 K, despite the small driving force for charge generation. Studies on a blend with a low concentration of the NFA, measurements of the energetic disorder, and theoretical modeling suggest that CT state dissociation is assisted by the electrostatic interfacial field which for Y6 is large enough to compensate the Coulomb dissociation barrier.
KW  - driving force
KW  - non-fullerene acceptors
KW  - organic solar cells
KW  - photocurrent generation
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201906763
SN  - 0935-9648
SN  - 1521-4095
VL  - 32
IS  - 9
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Joshi, Siddharth
A1  - Pingel, Patrick
A1  - Grigorian, Souren
A1  - Panzner, Tobias
A1  - Pietsch, Ullrich
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Forster, Michael
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
T1  - Bimodal temperature behavior of structure and mobility in high molecular weight p3ht thin films
N2  - We report a temperature dependent crystalline structure of spin-coated thin films of high molecular weight regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) (M-n similar to 30000 g/mol) and its correlation with charge carrier mobility. These investigations show a reversible change of the crystalline structure, where the interlayer lattice spacing (100)along the alkyl side chains continuously increases up to a temperature of about 220 degrees C; in contrast, the in-plane pi-pi distance reduces with increasing temperature. These changes in structure are reversible and can be repeated several times. The temperature-induced structural properties differ for thick and thin films, pointing to a surface/interface role in stabilization of the layer morphology. In contrast to the structural changes, the carrier mobility is rather constant in the temperature range from room temperature up to 100-120 degrees C, followed by a continuous decrease. For thick layers this drop is significant and the transistor performance almost vanishes at high temperature, however, it completely recovers upon cooling back to roorn temperature. The drop of the charge carrier mobility at higher temperatures is in contrast with expectations front the structural studies, considering the increase of crystalline fraction of the polycrystalline layer. our electrical measurements Underscore that the reduction of the macroscopic mobility is mostly caused by it pronounced decrease of the intergrain transport. The thermally induced crystallization along(100) direction and the creation of numerous small crystallites at the film-substrate interface reduce the number of long polymer chain, bridging crystalline domains, which ultimately limits the macroscopic charge transport.
Y1  - 2009
UR  - http://pubs.acs.org/journal/mamobx
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/Ma900021w
SN  - 0024-9297
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Grell, M.
A1  - Knoll, W.
A1  - Lupo, D.
A1  - Meisel, A.
A1  - Miteva, T.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Nothofer, Heinz-Georg
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
A1  - Yasuda, H.
T1  - Blue polarized electroluminescence from a liquid crystalline polyfluorene
Y1  - 1999
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Yang, X. H.
A1  - Jaiser, Frank
A1  - Klinger, S
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Blue polymer electrophosphorescent devices with different electron-transporting oxadiazoles
N2  - We report that the performances of blue polymer electrophosphorescent devices are crucially depending on the choice of the electron transporting material incorporated into the emissive layer. Devices with 1,3-bis[(4-tert- butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxidiazolyl]phenylene (OXD-7) doped at similar to 40 wt% into a poly(vinylcarbazole) matrix exhibited significantly higher efficiencies than those with 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD), yielding maximum luminous and power efficiency values of 18.2 Cd/A and 8.8 lm/W, respectively. Time resolved photoluminescence measurements revealed a long lifetime phosphorescence component in layers with PBD, which we assign to significant triplet harvesting by this electron-transporting component. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics
Y1  - 2006
UR  - http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/ GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=APPLAB000088000002021107000001&idtype=cvips&doi=10.1063/1.2162693&prog=normal
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2162693
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Li, Tian-yi
A1  - Benduhn, Johannes
A1  - Li, Yue
A1  - Jaiser, Frank
A1  - Spoltore, Donato
A1  - Zeika, Olaf
A1  - Ma, Zaifei
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Vandewal, Koen
A1  - Leo, Karl
T1  - Boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) with meso-perfluorinated alkyl substituents as near infrared donors in organic solar cells
JF  - Journal of materials chemistry : A, Materials for energy and sustainability
N2  - 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.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ta06261g
SN  - 2050-7488
SN  - 2050-7496
VL  - 6
IS  - 38
SP  - 18583
EP  - 18591
PB  - Royal Society of Chemistry
CY  - Cambridge
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Steyrleuthner, Robert
A1  - Schubert, Marcel
A1  - Jaiser, Frank
A1  - Blakesley, James C.
A1  - Chen, Zhihua
A1  - Facchetti, Antonio
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Bulk electron transport and charge injection in a high mobility n-type semiconducting polymer
N2  - Bulk electron transport in a high mobility n-type polymer is studied by time-of-flight photocurrent measurements and electron-only devices. Bulk electron mobilities of similar to 5 x 10(-3) cm(2)/Vs are obtained. The analysis of the electron currents suggests the presence of an injection barrier for all conventionally used low workfunction cathodes.
Y1  - 2010
UR  - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/10008336
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201000232
SN  - 0935-9648
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bauer, C.
A1  - Böhmer, Roland
A1  - Moreno-Flores, S.
A1  - Richert, R.
A1  - Sillescu, H.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Capacitive scanning dilatometry and frequency dependent thermal expansion of polymer films
Y1  - 2000
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Liu, W.
A1  - Tkachov, R.
A1  - Komber, H.
A1  - Senkovskyy, V.
A1  - Schubert, M.
A1  - Wei, Z.
A1  - Facchetti, A.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Kiriy, A.
T1  - Chain-growth polycondensation of perylene diimide-based copolymers: a new route to regio-regular perylene diimide-based acceptors for all-polymer solar cells and n-type transistors
JF  - Polymer Chemistry
N2  - Herein, we report the chain-growth tin-free room temperature polymerization method to synthesize n-type perylene diimide-dithiophene-based conjugated polymers (PPDIT2s) suitable for solar cell and transistor applications. The palladium/electron-rich tri-tert-butylphosphine catalyst is effective to enable the chain-growth polymerization of anion-radical monomer Br-TPDIT-Br/Zn to PPDIT2 with a molecular weight up to M-w approximate to 50 kg mol(-1) and moderate polydispersity. This is the second example of the polymerization of unusual anion-radical aromatic complexes formed in a reaction of active Zn and electron-deficient diimide-based aryl halides. As such, the discovered polymerization method is not a specific reactivity feature of the naphthalene-diimide derivatives but is rather a general polymerization tool. This is an important finding, given the significantly higher maximum external quantum efficiency that can be reached with PDI-based copolymers (32-45%) in all-polymer solar cells compared to NDI-based materials (15-30%). Our studies revealed that PPDIT2 synthesized by the new method and the previously published polymer prepared by step-growth Stille polycondensation show similar electron mobility and all-polymer solar cell performance. At the same time, the polymerization reported herein has several technological advantages as it proceeds relatively fast at room temperature and does not involve toxic tin-based compounds. Because several chain-growth polymerization reactions are well-suited for the preparation of well-defined multi-functional polymer architectures, the next target is to explore the utility of the discovered polymerization in the synthesis of end-functionalized polymers and block copolymers. Such materials would be helpful to improve the nanoscale morphology of polymer blends in all-polymer solar cells.
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3py01707a
SN  - 1759-9954
SN  - 1759-9962
VL  - 5
IS  - 10
SP  - 3404
EP  - 3411
PB  - Royal Society of Chemistry
CY  - Cambridge
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Laquai, Frederic
A1  - Andrienko, Denis
A1  - Deibel, Carsten
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Charge carrier generation, recombination, and extraction in polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction organic solar cells
JF  - Elementary processes in organic photovoltaics
N2  - In this chapter we review the basic principles of photocurrent generation in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells, discuss the loss channels limiting their efficiency, and present case studies of several polymer-fullerene blends. Using steady-state and transient, optical, and electrooptical techniques, we create a precise picture of the fundamental processes that ultimately govern solar cell efficiency.
KW  - Charge extraction
KW  - Charge generation
KW  - Charge recombination
KW  - Organic solar cells
KW  - PBT7
KW  - PBTTT
KW  - PCPDTBT
Y1  - 2026
SN  - 978-3-319-28338-8
SN  - 978-3-319-28336-4
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28338-8_11
SN  - 0065-3195
VL  - 272
SP  - 267
EP  - 291
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Däubler, Thomas Karl
A1  - Bittner, Reinhard
A1  - Meerholz, Klaus
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Charge carrier photogeneration, trapping and space-charge field formation in PVK-based photorefractive materials
Y1  - 2000
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Paulke, Andreas
A1  - Stranks, Samuel D.
A1  - Kniepert, Juliane
A1  - Kurpiers, Jona
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Schön, Natalie
A1  - Snaith, Henry J.
A1  - Brenner, Thomas J. K.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Charge carrier recombination dynamics in perovskite and polymer solar cells
JF  - Applied physics letters
N2  - Time-delayed collection field experiments are applied to planar organometal halide perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) based solar cells to investigate charge carrier recombination in a fully working solar cell at the nanosecond to microsecond time scale. Recombination of mobile (extractable) charges is shown to follow second-order recombination dynamics for all fluences and time scales tested. Most importantly, the bimolecular recombination coefficient is found to be time-dependent, with an initial value of ca. 10(-9) cm(3)/s and a progressive reduction within the first tens of nanoseconds. Comparison to the prototypical organic bulk heterojunction device PTB7:PC71BM yields important differences with regard to the mechanism and time scale of free carrier recombination. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4944044
SN  - 0003-6951
SN  - 1077-3118
VL  - 108
SP  - 252
EP  - 262
PB  - American Institute of Physics
CY  - Melville
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Roland, Steffen
A1  - Yan, Liang
A1  - Zhang, Qianqian
A1  - Jiao, Xuechen
A1  - Hunt, Adrian
A1  - Ghasemi, Masoud
A1  - Ade, Harald
A1  - You, Wei
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Charge Generation and Mobility-Limited Performance of Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells with a Higher Adduct Fullerene
JF  - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces
N2  - Alternative electron acceptors are being actively explored in order to advance the development of bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs). The indene-C-60 bisadduct (ICBA) has been regarded as a promising candidate, as it provides high open-circuit voltage in BHJ solar cells; however, the photovoltaic performance of such ICBA-based devices is often inferior when compared to cells with the omnipresent PCBM electron acceptor. Here, by pairing the high performance polymer (FTAZ) as the donor with either PCBM or ICBA as the acceptor, we explore the physical mechanism behind the reduced performance of the ICBA-based device. Time delayed collection field (TDCF) experiments reveal reduced, yet field-independent free charge generation in the FTAZ:ICBA system, explaining the overall lower photocurrent in its cells. Through the analysis of the photoluminescence, photogeneration, and electroluminescence, we find that the lower generation efficiency is neither caused by inefficient exciton splitting, nor do we find evidence for significant energy back-transfer from the CT state to singlet excitons. In fact, the increase in open circuit voltage when replacing PCBM by ICBA is entirely caused by the increase in the CT energy, related to the shift in the LUMO energy, while changes in the radiative and nonradiative recombination losses are nearly absent. On the other hand, space charge limited current (SCLC) and bias-assisted charge extraction (BACE) measurements consistently reveal a severely lower electron mobilitiy in the FTAZ:ICBA blend. Studies of the blends with resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS), grazing incident wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS), and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) reveal very little differences in the mesoscopic morphology but significantly less nanoscale molecular ordering of the fullerene domains in the ICBA based blends, which we propose as the main cause for the lower generation efficiency and smaller electron mobility. Calculations of the JV curves with an analytical model, using measured values, show good agreement with the experimentally determined JV characteristics, proving that these devices suffer from slow carrier extraction, resulting in significant bimolecular recombination losses. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of high charge carrier mobility for newly synthesized acceptor materials, in addition to having suitable energy levels.
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b02288
SN  - 1932-7447
VL  - 121
SP  - 10305
EP  - 10316
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ran, Niva A.
A1  - Love, John A.
A1  - Heiber, Michael C.
A1  - Jiao, Xuechen
A1  - Hughes, Michael P.
A1  - Karki, Akchheta
A1  - Wang, Ming
A1  - Brus, Viktor V.
A1  - Wang, Hengbin
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Ade, Harald
A1  - Bazan, Guillermo C.
A1  - Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, 
T1  - Charge generation and recombination in an organic solar cell with low energetic offsets
JF  - dvanced energy materials
N2  - Organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells require energetic offsets between the donor and acceptor to obtain high short-circuit currents (J(SC)) and fill factors (FF). However, it is necessary to reduce the energetic offsets to achieve high open-circuit voltages (V-OC). Recently, reports have highlighted BHJ blends that are pushing at the accepted limits of energetic offsets necessary for high efficiency. Unfortunately, most of these BHJs have modest FF values. How the energetic offset impacts the solar cell characteristics thus remains poorly understood. Here, a comprehensive characterization of the losses in a polymer:fullerene BHJ blend, PIPCP:phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM), that achieves a high V-OC (0.9 V) with very low energy losses (E-loss = 0.52 eV) from the energy of absorbed photons, a respectable J(SC) (13 mA cm(-2)), but a limited FF (54%) is reported. Despite the low energetic offset, the system does not suffer from field-dependent generation and instead it is characterized by very fast nongeminate recombination and the presence of shallow traps. The charge-carrier losses are attributed to suboptimal morphology due to high miscibility between PIPCP and PC61BM. These results hold promise that given the appropriate morphology, the J(SC), V-OC, and FF can all be improved, even with very low energetic offsets.
KW  - energetic offset
KW  - fill factor
KW  - morphology
KW  - organic solar cells
KW  - recombination
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701073
SN  - 1614-6832
SN  - 1614-6840
VL  - 8
IS  - 5
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bange, Sebastian
A1  - Schubert, Marcel
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Charge mobility determination by current extraction under linear increasing voltages : case of nonequilibrium charges and field-dependent mobilities
N2  - The method of current extraction under linear increasing voltages (CELIV) allows for the simultaneous determination of charge mobilities and charge densities directly in thin-film geometries as used in organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. It has been specifically applied to investigate the interrelation of microstructure and charge-transport properties in such systems. Numerical and analytical calculations presented in this work show that the evaluation of CELIV transients with the commonly used analysis scheme is error prone once charge recombination and, possibly, field- dependent charge mobilities are taken into account. The most important effects are an apparent time dependence of charge mobilities and errors in the determined field dependencies. Our results implicate that reports on time-dependent mobility relaxation in OPV materials obtained by the CELIV technique should be carefully revisited and confirmed by other measurement methods.
Y1  - 2010
UR  - http://prb.aps.org/
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1103/Physrevb.81.035209
SN  - 1098-0121
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kraffert, Felix
A1  - Steyrleuthner, Robert
A1  - Albrecht, Steve
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Scharber, Markus C.
A1  - Bittl, Robert
A1  - Behrends, Jan
T1  - Charge Separation in PCPDTBT : PCBM Blends from an EPR Perspective
JF  - The journal of physical chemistry
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/jp509650v
SN  - 1932-7447
VL  - 118
IS  - 49
SP  - 28482
EP  - 28493
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Piersimoni, Fortunato
A1  - Schlesinger, Raphael
A1  - Benduhn, Johannes
A1  - Spoltore, Donato
A1  - Reiter, Sina
A1  - Lange, Ilja
A1  - Koch, Norbert
A1  - Vandewal, Koen
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Charge Transfer Absorption and Emission at ZnO/Organic Interfaces
JF  - The journal of physical chemistry letters
N2  - We investigate hybrid charge transfer states (HCTS) at the planar interface between a-NPD and ZnO by spectrally resolved electroluminescence (EL) and external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements. Radiative decay of HCTSs is proven by distinct emission peaks in the EL spectra of such bilayer devices in the NIR at energies well below the bulk a-NPD or ZnO emission. The EQE spectra display low energy contributions clearly red-shifted with respect to the a-NPD photocurrent and partially overlapping with the EL emission. Tuning of the energy gap between the ZnO conduction band and a-NPD HOMO level (E-int) was achieved by modifying the ZnO surface with self-assembled monolayers based on phosphonic acids. We find a linear dependence of the peak position of the NIR EL on E-int, which unambiguously attributes the origin of this emission to radiative recombination between an electron on the ZnO and a hole on a-NPD. In accordance with this interpretation, we find a strictly linear relation between the open-circuit voltage and the energy of the charge state for such hybrid organicinorganic interfaces.
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/jz502657z
SN  - 1948-7185
VL  - 6
IS  - 3
SP  - 500
EP  - 504
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ghani, Fatemeh
A1  - Opitz, Andreas
A1  - Pingel, Patrick
A1  - Heimel, Georg
A1  - Salzmann, Ingo
A1  - Frisch, Johannes
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Tsami, Argiri
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
A1  - Koch, Norbert
T1  - Charge Transfer in and Conductivity of Molecularly Doped Thiophene-Based Copolymers
JF  - Journal of polymer science : B, Polymer physics
N2  - The electrical conductivity of organic semiconductors can be enhanced by orders of magnitude via doping with strong molecular electron acceptors or donors. Ground-state integer charge transfer and charge-transfer complex formation between organic semiconductors and molecular dopants have been suggested as the microscopic mechanisms causing these profound changes in electrical materials properties. Here, we study charge-transfer interactions between the common molecular p-dopant 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane and a systematic series of thiophene-based copolymers by a combination of spectroscopic techniques and electrical measurements. Subtle variations in chemical structure are seen to significantly impact the nature of the charge-transfer species and the efficiency of the doping process, underlining the need for a more detailed understanding of the microscopic doping mechanism in organic semiconductors to reliably guide targeted chemical design.
KW  - charge transfer
KW  - conducting polymers
KW  - doping
KW  - thiophene
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/polb.23631
SN  - 0887-6266
SN  - 1099-0488
VL  - 53
IS  - 1
SP  - 58
EP  - 63
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schubert, Marcel
A1  - Steyrleuthner, Robert
A1  - Bange, Sebastian
A1  - Sellinger, Alan
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Charge transport and recombination in bulk heterojunction solar cells containing a dicyanoimidazole-based molecular acceptor
N2  - Carrier transport and recombination have been studied in single component layers and blends of the soluble PPV- derivative poly[2,5-dimethoxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene-2-methoxy-5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)- 1,4-phenylenevinylene] (M3EH-PPV) and the small molecule acceptor 4,7-bis(2-(1-hexyl-4,5-dicyanoimidazole-2-yl)vinyl) benzo[c][1,2,5]-thiadiazole (HV-BT). Measurements on single carrier devices show significantly smaller electron mobility in the blend compared to the pure HV- BT layer, which is suggestive of the formation of isolated clusters of the acceptor in a continuous polymer matrix. The significant change in fill factor (FF) with increasing illumination intensity is consistently explained by a model taking into account bimolecular recombination and space charge effects. The decay of the carrier density after photoexcitation has been studied by performing photo-CELIV measurements on pure and blend layers. It is found that the decay at long delay times follows a power-law dependence, which is, however, not consistent with a Langevin-type bimolecular recombination of free charges. A good description of the data is obtained by assuming trimolecular recombination to govern the charge carrier dynamics in these systems.
Y1  - 2009
UR  - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/40000761
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.200925312
SN  - 1862-6300
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Tremel, Kim
A1  - Fischer, Florian S. U.
A1  - Kayunkid, Navaphun
A1  - Di Pietro, Riccardo
A1  - Tkachov, Roman
A1  - Kiriy, Anton
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Ludwigs, Sabine
A1  - Brinkmann, Martin
T1  - Charge transport anisotropy in highly oriented thin films of the acceptor polymer P(NDI2OD-T2)
JF  - dvanced energy materials
N2  - The nanomorphology of the high mobility polymer poly{[N,N'-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenedicarboximide-2,6-diyl]-alt-5,5'-(2,2'-bithiophene)} P(NDI2OD-T2) in thin films is explored as a function of different annealing conditions and correlated to optical and electrical properties. While nanofibrils with face-on orientation in form I are obtained directly after spin-coating and annealing below the melt transition temperature, clear evidence of lamellar structures is found after melt-annealing followed by slow cooling to room temperature. Interestingly these structural changes are accompanied by distinct changes in the absorption patterns. Electron diffraction measurements further show clear transitions towards predominant edge-on oriented chains in form II upon melt-annealing. Large-scale alignment with dichroic ratios up to 10 and improved order is achieved by high temperature rubbing and subsequent post-rubbing annealing. These highly oriented morphologies allow anisotropic in-plane charge transport to be probed with top-gate transistors parallel and perpendicular to the polymer chain direction. Mobilities up to 0.1 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) are observed parallel to the polymer chain, which is up to 10 times higher than those perpendicular to the polymer chain.
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201301659
SN  - 1614-6832
SN  - 1614-6840
VL  - 4
IS  - 10
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Le Corre, Vincent M.
A1  - Stolterfoht, Martin
A1  - Perdigón-Toro, Lorena
A1  - Feuerstein, Markus
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Gil-Escrig, Lidon
A1  - Bolink, Henk J.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Koster, L. Jan Anton
T1  - Charge Transport Layers Limiting the Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells: How To Optimize Conductivity, Doping, and Thickness
JF  - ACS Applied Energy Materials
N2  - Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are one of the main research topics of the photovoltaic community; with efficiencies now reaching up to 24%, PSCs are on the way to catching up with classical inorganic solar cells. However, PSCs have not yet reached their full potential. In fact, their efficiency is still limited by nonradiative recombination, mainly via trap-states and by losses due to the poor transport properties of the commonly used transport layers (TLs). Indeed, state-of-the-art TLs (especially if organic) suffer from rather low mobilities, typically within 10(-5) and 10(-2) cm(-2) V-1 s(-1), when compared to the high mobilities, 1-10 cm(-2) V-1 s(-1), measured for perovskites. This work presents a comprehensive analysis of the effect of the mobility, thickness, and doping density of the transport layers based on combined experimental and modeling results of two sets of devices made of a solution-processed high-performing triple-cation (PCE approximate to 20%). The results are also cross-checked on vacuum-processed MAPbI(3) devices. From this analysis, general guidelines on how to optimize a TL are introduced and especially a new and simple formula to easily calculate the amount of doping necessary to counterbalance the low mobility of the TLs.
KW  - perovskite solar cells
KW  - transport layers
KW  - conductivity
KW  - doping
KW  - charge transport
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.9b00856
SN  - 2574-0962
VL  - 2
IS  - 9
SP  - 6280
EP  - 6287
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mueller, Lars
A1  - Nanova, Diana
A1  - Glaser, Tobias
A1  - Beck, Sebastian
A1  - Pucci, Annemarie
A1  - Kast, Anne K.
A1  - Schroeder, Rasmus R.
A1  - Mankel, Eric
A1  - Pingel, Patrick
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Kowalsky, Wolfgang
A1  - Lovrincic, Robert
T1  - Charge-Transfer-Solvent Interaction Predefines Doping Efficiency in p-Doped P3HT Films
JF  - Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society
N2  - Efficient electrical doping of organic semiconductors is a necessary prerequisite for the fabrication of high performance organic electronic devices. In this work, we study p-type doping of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F(4)TCNQ) spin-cast from two different solvents. Using electron diffraction, we find strong dopant-induced pi-pi-stacking for films from the solvent chloroform, but not from chlorobenzene. This image is confirmed and expanded by the analysis of vibrational features of P3HT and polaron absorptions using optical spectroscopy. Here, a red-shifted polaron absorption is found in doped films from chloroform, caused by a higher conjugation length of the polymer backbone. These differences result in a higher conductivity of films from chloroform. We use optical spectroscopy on the corresponding blend solutions to shed light on the origin of this effect and propose a model to explain why solutions of doped P3HT reveal more aggregation of charged molecules in chlorobenzene, whereas more order is finally observed in dried films from chloroform. Our study emphasizes the importance of solvent parameters exceeding the bare solubility of pure dopant and host material for the preparation of highly conductive doped films.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b01629
SN  - 0897-4756
SN  - 1520-5002
VL  - 28
SP  - 4432
EP  - 4439
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wilson, J. N.
A1  - Steffen, W.
A1  - McKenzie, T. G.
A1  - Lieser, G.
A1  - Oda, Masao
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Bunz, Uwe H. F.
T1  - Chiroptcial properties of poly(p-phenyleneethynylene) copolymers in thin films : large g-values
Y1  - 2002
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Oda, Masao
A1  - Meskers, S. C. J.
A1  - Nothofer, Heinz-Georg
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Chiroptical properties of chiral-substituted polyfluorenes
Y1  - 2000
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Oda, Masao
A1  - Nothofer, Heinz-Georg
A1  - Lieser, G.
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
A1  - Meskers, S. C. J.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Circularly-polarized electroluminescence from liquid-crystalline chiral polyfluorenes
Y1  - 2000
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Xu, Jingsan
A1  - Shalom, Menny
A1  - Piersimoni, Fortunato
A1  - Antonietti, Markus
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Brenner, Thomas J. K.
T1  - Color-Tunable Photoluminescence and NIR Electroluminescence in Carbon Nitride Thin Films and Light-Emitting Diodes
JF  - Advanced optical materials
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.201500019
SN  - 2195-1071
VL  - 3
IS  - 7
SP  - 913
EP  - 917
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kietzke, Thomas
A1  - Egbe, Daniel A. M.
A1  - Hörhold, Hans-Heinrich
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Comparative study of M3EH-PPV-based bilayer photovoltaic devices
N2  - We have recently shown that efficient polymer solar cells can be fabricated by using a weakly soluble derivative of poly-p-vinylene (M3EH-PPV) as the electron donor. Here we present studies on bilayer devices using organic electron acceptors with varying LUMO levels and M3EH-PPV. It is found that the open-circuit voltage scales linearly with the LUMO level of the acceptor, reaching values as high as 1.5 V when cyano-substituted poly(p-phenyleneethynylene)-alt- poly(p-phenylenevinylene) copolymers are used. Further, we discovered that for an increasing number of triple bonds in the repeat unit of the acceptor polymer the device performance decreases with increasing thickness of the acceptor layer. Also, the quantum efficiency was smaller when using polymers with higher LUMO levels. Thus, further effort is needed to design optimum acceptor polymers for devices exhibiting large open-circuit voltage and high quantum efficiency
Y1  - 2006
UR  - http://pubs.acs.org/journal/mamobx
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/Ma0601991
SN  - 4018-4022
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zen, Achmad
A1  - Saphiannikova, Marina
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Asawapirom, Udom
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
T1  - Comparative study of the field-effect mobility of a copolymer and a binary blend based on poly(3- alkylthiophene)s
N2  - The performance of highly soluble regioregular poly[ (3-hexylthiophene)-co-(3-octylthiophetie)] (P3HTOT) as a semiconducting material in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) is presented in comparison to that of the corresponding homopolymers. Transistors made from as-prepared layers of P3HTOT exhibit a mobility of ca. 7 x 10(-3) cm(2) V-1 s(-1), which is comparable to the performance of transistors made from as-prepared poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and almost 6 times larger than the mobility of transistors prepared with poly(3-octylthiophene) (P3OT). On the other hand, the solubility parameter delta(p) of P3HTOT is close to that of the highly soluble P3OT. Moreover, compared to a physical blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and poly(3-octylthiophene), the mobility of P3HTOT devices is almost twice as large and the performance does not degrade upon annealing at elevated temperatures. Therefore, the copolymer approach outlined here may be one promising step toward an optimum balance between a Sufficient processability of the polymers from common organic solvents, a high solid state order, and applicable OFET performances
Y1  - 2005
SN  - 0897-4756
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bartesaghi, Davide
A1  - Perez, Irene del Carmen
A1  - Kniepert, Juliane
A1  - Roland, Steffen
A1  - Turbiez, Mathieu
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Koster, L. Jan Anton
T1  - Competition between recombination and extraction of free charges determines the fill factor of organic solar cells
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Among the parameters that characterize a solar cell and define its power-conversion efficiency, the fill factor is the least well understood, making targeted improvements difficult. Here we quantify the competition between charge extraction and recombination by using a single parameter theta, and we demonstrate that this parameter is directly related to the fill factor of many different bulk-heterojunction solar cells. Our finding is supported by experimental measurements on 15 different donor: acceptor combinations, as well as by drift-diffusion simulations of organic solar cells in which charge-carrier mobilities, recombination rate, light intensity, energy levels and active-layer thickness are all varied over wide ranges to reproduce typical experimental conditions. The results unify the fill factors of several very different donor: acceptor combinations and give insight into why fill factors change so much with thickness, light intensity and materials properties. To achieve fill factors larger than 0.8 requires further improvements in charge transport while reducing recombination.
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8083
SN  - 2041-1723
VL  - 6
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pingel, P.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Comprehensive picture of p-type doping of P3HT with the molecular acceptor F(4)TCNQ
JF  - Physical review : B, Condensed matter and materials physics
N2  - By means of optical spectroscopy, Kelvin probe, and conductivity measurements, we study the p-type doping of the donor polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT, with the molecular acceptor tetrafluorotetracyanoquin-odimethane, F(4)TCNQ, covering a broad range of molar doping ratios from the ppm to the percent regime. Thorough quantitative analysis of the specific near-infrared absorption bands of ionized F(4)TCNQ reveals that almost every F(4)TCNQ dopant undergoes integer charge transfer with a P3HT site. However, only about 5% of these charge carrier pairs are found to dissociate and contribute a free hole for electrical conduction. The nonlinear behavior of the conductivity on doping ratio is rationalized by a numerical mobility model that accounts for the broadening of the energetic distribution of transport sites by the Coulomb potentials of ionized F(4)TCNQ dopants. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.87.115209
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.115209
SN  - 1098-0121
VL  - 87
IS  - 11
PB  - American Physical Society
CY  - College Park
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rengel, Heiko
A1  - Gattinger, P.
A1  - Silverova, R.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Conductivity measurements of electrochemically oxidized Langmuir-Blodgett films of phthalocyaninato- polysiloxanes
Y1  - 1999
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zu, Fengshuo
A1  - Amsalem, Patrick
A1  - Egger, David A.
A1  - Wang, Rongbin
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Fang, Honghua
A1  - Loi, Maria Antonietta
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Kronik, Leeor
A1  - Duhm, Steffen
A1  - Koch, Norbert
T1  - Constructing the Electronic Structure of CH3NH3PbI3 and CH3NH3PbBr3 Perovskite Thin Films from Single-Crystal Band Structure Measurements
JF  - The journal of physical chemistry letters
N2  - Photovoltaic cells based on halide perovskites, possessing remarkably high power conversion efficiencies have been reported. To push the development of such devices further, a comprehensive and reliable understanding of their electronic properties is essential but presently not available. To provide a solid foundation for understanding the electronic properties of polycrystalline thin films, we employ single-crystal band structure data from angle-resolved photoemission measurements. For two prototypical perovskites (CH3NH3PbBr3 and CH3NH3PbI3), we reveal the band dispersion in two high-symmetry directions and identify the global valence band maxima. With these benchmark data, we construct "standard" photoemission spectra from polycrystalline thin film samples and resolve challenges discussed in the literature for determining the valence band onset with high reliability. Within the framework laid out here, the consistency of relating the energy level alignment in perovskite-based photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices with their functional parameters is substantially enhanced.
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b03728
SN  - 1948-7185
VL  - 10
IS  - 3
SP  - 601
EP  - 609
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Scharsich, Christina
A1  - Lohwasser, Ruth H.
A1  - Sommer, Michael
A1  - Asawapirom, Udom
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
A1  - Thelakkat, Mukundan
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Koehler, Anna
T1  - Control of aggregate formation in poly(3-hexylthiophene) by solvent, molecular weight, and synthetic method
JF  - Journal of polymer science : B, Polymer physics
N2  - Aggregate formation in poly(3-hexylthiophene) depends on molecular weight, solvent, and synthetic method. The interplay of these parameters thus largely controls device performance. In order to obtain a quantitative understanding on how these factors control the resulting electronic properties of P3HT, we measured absorption in solution and in thin films as well as the resulting field effect mobility in transistors. By a detailed analysis of the absorption spectra, we deduce the fraction of aggregates formed, the excitonic coupling within the aggregates, and the conjugation length within the aggregates, all as a function of solvent quality for molecular weights from 5 to 19 kDa. From this, we infer in which structure the aggregated chains pack. Although the 5 kDa samples form straight chains, the 11 and 19 kDa chains are kinked or folded, with conjugation lengths that increase as the solvent quality reduces. There is a maximum fraction of aggregated chains (about 55 +/- 5%) that can be obtained, even for poor solvent quality. We show that inducing aggregation in solution leads to control of aggregate properties in thin films. As expected, the field-effect mobility correlates with the propensity to aggregation. Correspondingly, we find that a well-defined synthetic approach, tailored to give a narrow molecular weight distribution, is needed to obtain high field effect mobilities of up to 0.01 cm2/Vs for low molecular weight samples (=11 kDa), while the influence of synthetic method is negligible for samples of higher molecular weight, if low molecular weight fractions are removed by extraction.
KW  - conformational analysis
KW  - conjugated polymers
KW  - crystallization
KW  - films
KW  - interaction parameter
KW  - molecular weight distribution
KW  - molar mass distribution
KW  - nucleation
KW  - photophysics
KW  - structure
KW  - UV-vis spectroscopy
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/polb.23022
SN  - 0887-6266
VL  - 50
IS  - 6
SP  - 442
EP  - 453
PB  - Wiley-Blackwell
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Sainova, Dessislava
A1  - Miteva, T.
A1  - Nothofer, Heinz-Georg
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
A1  - Fujikawa, H.
A1  - Glowacki, Ireneusz
A1  - Ulanski, J.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Control of color and efficiency of light-emitting diodes based on polyfluorenes blended with hole-transporting molecules
Y1  - 2000
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Canil, Laura
A1  - Rehermann, Carolin
A1  - Nguyen, Ngoc Linh
A1  - Zu, Fengshuo
A1  - Ralaiarisoa, Maryline
A1  - Caprioglio, Pietro
A1  - Fiedler, Lukas
A1  - Stolterfoht, Martin
A1  - Kogikoski, Junior, Sergio
A1  - Bald, Ilko
A1  - Koch, Norbert
A1  - Unger, Eva L.
A1  - Dittrich, Thomas
A1  - Abate, Antonio
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Correction to 'Perfluorinated self-assembled monolayers enhance the stability and efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cells' (2020, 14 (2), 1445−1456)
T2  - ACS nano
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.0c08081
SN  - 1936-0851
SN  - 1936-086X
VL  - 14
IS  - 11
SP  - 16156
EP  - 16156
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington, DC
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schubert, Marcel
A1  - Collins, Brian A.
A1  - Mangold, Hannah
A1  - Howard, Ian A.
A1  - Schindler, Wolfram
A1  - Vandewal, Koen
A1  - Roland, Steffen
A1  - Behrends, Jan
A1  - Kraffert, Felix
A1  - Steyrleuthner, Robert
A1  - Chen, Zhihua
A1  - Fostiropoulos, Konstantinos
A1  - Bittl, Robert
A1  - Salleo, Alberto
A1  - Facchetti, Antonio
A1  - Laquai, Frederic
A1  - Ade, Harald W.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Correlated donor/acceptor crystal orientation controls photocurrent generation in all-polymer solar cells
JF  - Advanced functional materials
N2  - New polymers with high electron mobilities have spurred research in organic solar cells using polymeric rather than fullerene acceptors due to their potential of increased diversity, stability, and scalability. However, all-polymer solar cells have struggled to keep up with the steadily increasing power conversion efficiency of polymer: fullerene cells. The lack of knowledge about the dominant recombination process as well as the missing concluding picture on the role of the semi-crystalline microstructure of conjugated polymers in the free charge carrier generation process impede a systematic optimization of all-polymer solar cells. These issues are examined by combining structural and photo-physical characterization on a series of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (donor) and P(NDI2OD-T2) (acceptor) blend devices. These experiments reveal that geminate recombination is the major loss channel for photo-excited charge carriers. Advanced X-ray and electron-based studies reveal the effect of chloronaphthalene co-solvent in reducing domain size, altering domain purity, and reorienting the acceptor polymer crystals to be coincident with those of the donor. This reorientation correlates well with the increased photocurrent from these devices. Thus, effi cient split-up of geminate pairs at polymer/polymer interfaces may necessitate correlated donor/acceptor crystal orientation, which represents an additional requirement compared to the isotropic fullerene acceptors.
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201304216
SN  - 1616-301X
SN  - 1616-3028
VL  - 24
IS  - 26
SP  - 4068
EP  - 4081
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lange, Ilja
A1  - Kniepert, Juliane
A1  - Pingel, Patrick
A1  - Dumsch, Ines
A1  - Allard, Sybille
A1  - Janietz, Silvia
A1  - Scherf, Ullrich
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Correlation between the open circuit voltage and the energetics of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells
JF  - The journal of physical chemistry letters
N2  - A detailed investigation of the open circuit voltage (V-OC) of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells comprising three different donor polymers and two different fullerene-based acceptors is presented. Bias amplified charge extraction (BACE) is combined with Kelvin Probe measurements to derive information on the relevant energetics in the blend. On the example of P3HT:PC70BM the influence of composition and preparation conditions on the relevant transport levels will be shown. Moderate upward shifts of the P3HT HOMO depending on crystallinity are observed, but contrarily to common believe, the dependence of V-OC on blend composition and thermal history is found to be largely determined by the change in the PCBM LUMO energy. Following this approach, we quantified the energetic contribution to the V-OC in blends with fluorinated polymers or higher adduct fullerenes.
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/jz401971e
SN  - 1948-7185
VL  - 4
IS  - 22
SP  - 3865
EP  - 3871
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Di Pietro, Riccardo
A1  - Nasrallah, Iyad
A1  - Carpenter, Joshua
A1  - Gann, Eliot
A1  - Kölln, Lisa Sophie
A1  - Thomsen, Lars
A1  - Venkateshvaran, Deepak
A1  - Sadhanala, Aditya
A1  - Chabinyc, Michael
A1  - McNeill, Christopher R.
A1  - Facchetti, Antonio
A1  - Ade, Harald W.
A1  - Sirringhaus, Henning
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Coulomb Enhanced Charge Transport in Semicrystalline Polymer Semiconductors
JF  - Advanced functional materials
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201602080
SN  - 1616-301X
SN  - 1616-3028
VL  - 26
SP  - 8011
EP  - 8022
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Braunger, Steffen
A1  - Mundt, Laura E.
A1  - Wolff, Christian Michael
A1  - Mews, Mathias
A1  - Rehermann, Carolin
A1  - Jost, Marko
A1  - Tejada, Alvaro
A1  - Eisenhauer, David
A1  - Becker, Christiane
A1  - Andres Guerra, Jorge
A1  - Unger, Eva
A1  - Korte, Lars
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Schubert, Martin C.
A1  - Rech, Bernd
A1  - Albrecht, Steve
T1  - Cs(x)FA(1-x)Pb(l(1-y)Br(y))(3) Perovskite Compositions
BT  - the Appearance of Wrinkled Morphology and its Impact on Solar Cell Performance
JF  - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces
N2  - We report on the formation of wrinkle-patterned surface morphologies in cesium formamidinium-based Cs(x)FA(1-y)Pb(I1-yBry)(3) perovskite compositions with x = 0-0.3 and y = 0-0.3 under various spin-coating conditions. By varying the Cs and Br contents, the perovskite precursor solution concentration and the spin-coating procedure, the occurrence and characteristics of the wrinkle-shaped morphology can be tailored systematically. Cs(0.17)FA(0.83)Pb(I0.83Br0.17)(3) perovskite layers were analyzed regarding their surface roughness, microscopic structure, local and overall composition, and optoelectronic properties. Application of these films in p-i-n perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with indium-doped tin oxide/NiOx/perovskite/C-60/bathocuproine/Cu architecture resulted in up to 15.3 and 17.0% power conversion efficiency for the flat and wrinkled morphology, respectively. Interestingly, we find slightly red-shifted photoluminescence (PL) peaks for wrinkled areas and we are able to directly correlate surface topography with PL peak mapping. This is attributed to differences in the local grain size, whereas there is no indication for compositional demixing in the films. We show that the perovskite composition, crystallization kinetics, and layer thickness strongly influence the formation of wrinkles which is proposed to be related to the release of compressive strain during perovskite crystallization. Our work helps us to better understand film formation and to further improve the efficiency of PSCs with widely used mixed-perovskite compositions.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b06459
SN  - 1932-7447
SN  - 1932-7455
VL  - 122
IS  - 30
SP  - 17123
EP  - 17135
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shoaee, Safa
A1  - Armin, Ardalan
A1  - Stolterfoht, Martin
A1  - Hosseini, Seyed Mehrdad
A1  - Kurpiers, Jona
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Decoding Charge Recombination through Charge Generation in Organic Solar Cells
JF  - Solar RRL
N2  - The in-depth understanding of charge carrier photogeneration and recombination mechanisms in organic solar cells is still an ongoing effort. In donor:acceptor (bulk) heterojunction organic solar cells, charge photogeneration and recombination are inter-related via the kinetics of charge transfer states-being singlet or triplet states. Although high-charge-photogeneration quantum yields are achieved in many donor:acceptor systems, only very few systems show significantly reduced bimolecular recombination relative to the rate of free carrier encounters, in low-mobility systems. This is a serious limitation for the industrialization of organic solar cells, in particular when aiming at thick active layers. Herein, a meta-analysis of the device performance of numerous bulk heterojunction organic solar cells is presented for which field-dependent photogeneration, charge carrier mobility, and fill factor are determined. Herein, a "spin-related factor" that is dependent on the ratio of back electron transfer of the triplet charge transfer (CT) states to the decay rate of the singlet CT states is introduced. It is shown that this factor links the recombination reduction factor to charge-generation efficiency. As a consequence, it is only in the systems with very efficient charge generation and very fast CT dissociation that free carrier recombination is strongly suppressed, regardless of the spin-related factor.
KW  - charge generation
KW  - charge transfers
KW  - non-Langevin recombination
KW  - spin-related factors
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201900184
SN  - 2367-198X
VL  - 3
IS  - 11
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Qu, J. Q.
A1  - Zhang, J. Y.
A1  - Grimsdale, A. C.
A1  - Mullen, K.
A1  - Jaiser, Frank
A1  - Yang, X. H.
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Dendronized perylene diimide emitters : Synthesis, luminescence, and electron and energy transfer studies
N2  - Aggregation of chromophores in the solid state commonly causes undesirable red shifts in the emission spectra and/or emission quenching. To overcome this problem, we have prepared soluble perylenetetracarboxidiimide dyes in which the chromophores are effectively shielded by polyphenylene dendrimers attached in the bay positions. Models show that attachment of the shielding units in the bay position should provide more efficient shielding than attaching them via the imide moieties. The dendrimers possess excellent film-forming properties due to alkyl substituents on their peripheries. The lack of a red shift in emission upon going from solution to the solid state indicates the dendrons suppress interaction of the emissive cores, leading to pure red-orange emission. Single-layer LEDs produce red-orange emission with relatively low efficiency especially for the higher generation dendrons, which is attributed to poor charge conduction. LEDs using blends of the dendrimers and the undendronized dye as a model compound in PVK have been investigated, and a model to extract relative charge injection rates through the dendritic scaffold from the spectral contributions in the EL spectra is developed
Y1  - 2004
SN  - 0024-9297
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Vollbrecht, Joachim
A1  - Tokmoldin, Nurlan
A1  - Sun, Bowen
A1  - Brus, Viktor V.
A1  - Shoaee, Safa
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Determination of the charge carrier density in organic solar cells
BT  - a tutorial
JF  - Journal of applied physics
N2  - The increase in the performance of organic solar cells observed over the past few years has reinvigorated the search for a deeper understanding of the loss and extraction processes in this class of device. A detailed knowledge of the density of free charge carriers under different operating conditions and illumination intensities is a prerequisite to quantify the recombination and extraction dynamics. Differential charging techniques are a promising approach to experimentally obtain the charge carrier density under the aforementioned conditions. In particular, the combination of transient photovoltage and photocurrent as well as impedance and capacitance spectroscopy have been successfully used in past studies to determine the charge carrier density of organic solar cells. In this Tutorial, these experimental techniques will be discussed in detail, highlighting fundamental principles, practical considerations, necessary corrections, advantages, drawbacks, and ultimately their limitations. Relevant references introducing more advanced concepts will be provided as well. Therefore, the present Tutorial might act as an introduction and guideline aimed at new prospective users of these techniques as well as a point of reference for more experienced researchers. Published under an exclusive license by AIP Publishing.
KW  - Electrical properties and parameters
KW  - Organic semiconductors
KW  - Solar cells
KW  - Photoconductivity
KW  - Capacitance spectroscopy
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0094955
SN  - 0021-8979
SN  - 1089-7550
SN  - 1520-8850
VL  - 131
IS  - 22
PB  - American Institute of Physics
CY  - Melville, NY
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mechau, Norman
A1  - Saphiannikova, Marina
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - Dielectric and mechanical properties of azobenzene polymer layers under visible and ultraviolet irradiation
N2  - Photoinduced changes in the mechanical and dielectric properties of azobenzene polymer films were measured utilizing the method of electromechanical spectroscopy. The measurements revealed a strong correlation between the time- dependent behavior of the plate compliance and the dielectric constant under irradiation. Actinic light causes a light softening of the film that also manifests itself in the increase of the dielectric constant, whereas ultraviolet irradiation results in an initial plasticization of the film followed by its hardening. The latter is accompanied by decrease of the dielectric constant. A semiquantitative model based on the kinetics of the photoisomerization process in azobenzene polymers is proposed. We assume that both visible and ultraviolet irradiation increase the free volume in the layer due to photoisomerization. Additionally, ultraviolet light increases the modulus of the polymer matrix due to the presence of a high density of azobenzene moieties in the cis state. These assumptions allowed us to reproduce the time- dependent behavior of the bulk compliance as well as the dielectric constant at different irradiation intensities, for both visible and ultraviolet light, with only two adjustable parameters
Y1  - 2005
SN  - 0024-9297
ER  -