TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zeiske, Stefan
A1  - Sandberg, Oskar J.
A1  - Kurpiers, Jona
A1  - Shoaee, Safa
A1  - Meredith, Paul
A1  - Armin, Ardalan
T1  - Probing charge generation efficiency in thin-film solar cells by integral-mode transient charge extraction
JF  - ACS photonics
N2  - The photogeneration of free charges in light-harvesting devices is a multistep process, which can be challenging to probe due to the complexity of contributing energetic states and the competitive character of different driving mechanisms. In this contribution, we advance a technique, integral-mode transient charge extraction (ITCE), to probe these processes in thin-film solar cells. ITCE combines capacitance measurements with the integral-mode time-of-flight method in the low intensity regime of sandwich-type thin-film devices and allows for the sensitive determination of photogenerated charge-carrier densities. We verify the theoretical framework of our method by drift-diffusion simulations and demonstrate the applicability of ITCE to organic and perovskite semiconductor-based thin-film solar cells. Furthermore, we examine the field dependence of charge generation efficiency and find our ITCE results to be in excellent agreement with those obtained via time-delayed collection field measurements conducted on the same devices.
KW  - charge generation
KW  - thin-film solar cells
KW  - organic semiconductors;
KW  - perovskite semiconductors
KW  - external generation efficiency
Y1  - 2022
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.1c01532
SN  - 2330-4022
VL  - 9
IS  - 4
SP  - 1188
EP  - 1195
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  - Albrecht, Steve
A1  - Vandewal, Koen
A1  - Tumbleston, John R.
A1  - Fischer, Florian S. U.
A1  - Douglas, Jessica D.
A1  - Frechet, Jean M. J.
A1  - Ludwigs, Sabine
A1  - Ade, Harald W.
A1  - Salleo, Alberto
A1  - Neher, Dieter
T1  - On the efficiency of charge transfer state splitting in polymer: Fullerene solar cells
JF  - Advanced materials
KW  - organic solar cells
KW  - charge generation
KW  - geminate recombination
KW  - charge transfer states
KW  - driving force
KW  - excess energy
KW  - morphology
KW  - spectroelectrochemistry
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201305283
SN  - 0935-9648
SN  - 1521-4095
VL  - 26
IS  - 16
SP  - 2533
EP  - 2539
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  -