TY  - JOUR
A1  - Benduhn, Johannes
A1  - Piersimoni, Fortunato
A1  - Londi, Giacomo
A1  - Kirch, Anton
A1  - Widmer, Johannes
A1  - Koerner, Christian
A1  - Beljonne, David
A1  - Neher, Dieter
A1  - Spoltore, Donato
A1  - Vandewal, Koen
T1  - Impact of triplet excited states on the open-circuit voltage of organic solar cells
JF  - dvanced energy materials
N2  - 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.
KW  - charge-transfer states
KW  - nonradiative voltage losses
KW  - organic solar cells
KW  - triplet excited states
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201800451
SN  - 1614-6832
SN  - 1614-6840
VL  - 8
IS  - 21
PB  - Wiley-VCH
CY  - Weinheim
ER  - 
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  - 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  -