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 - TY - THES A1 - Sun, Bowen T1 - Energy losses in low-offset organic solar cells T1 - Energieverluste in organischen Solarzellen mit geringer Versetzung BT - from fundamental understanding to characterization considerations BT - von grundlegendem Verständnis bis zu Charakterisierungsüberlegungen N2 - Organic solar cells (OSCs) represent a new generation of solar cells with a range of captivating attributes including low-cost, light-weight, aesthetically pleasing appearance, and flexibility. Different from traditional silicon solar cells, the photon-electron conversion in OSCs is usually accomplished in an active layer formed by blending two kinds of organic molecules (donor and acceptor) with different energy levels together. The first part of this thesis focuses on a better understanding of the role of the energetic offset and each recombination channel on the performance of these low-offset OSCs. By combining advanced experimental techniques with optical and electrical simulation, the energetic offsets between CT and excitons, several important insights were achieved: 1. The short circuit current density and fill-factor of low-offset systems are largely determined by field-dependent charge generation in such low-offset OSCs. Interestingly, it is strongly evident that such field-dependent charge generation originates from a field-dependent exciton dissociation yield. 2. The reduced energetic offset was found to be accompanied by strongly enhanced bimolecular recombination coefficient, which cannot be explained solely by exciton repopulation from CT states. This implies the existence of another dark decay channel apart from CT. The second focus of the thesis was on the technical perspective. In this thesis, the influence of optical artifacts in differential absorption spectroscopy upon the change of sample configuration and active layer thickness was studied. It is exemplified and discussed thoroughly and systematically in terms of optical simulations and experiments, how optical artifacts originated from non-uniform carrier profile and interference can manipulate not only the measured spectra, but also the decay dynamics in various measurement conditions. In the end of this study, a generalized methodology based on an inverse optical transfer matrix formalism was provided to correct the spectra and decay dynamics manipulated by optical artifacts. Overall, this thesis paves the way for a deeper understanding of the keys toward higher PCEs in low-offset OSC devices, from the perspectives of both device physics and characterization techniques. N2 - Organische Solarzellen (OSZ) repräsentieren eine neue Generation von Solarzellen mit einer Vielzahl faszinierender Eigenschaften, darunter geringe Kosten, geringes Gewicht, ästhetisch ansprechendes Erscheinungsbild und Flexibilität. Im Gegensatz zu traditionellen Silizium-Solarzellen erfolgt die Umwandlung von Photonen in Elektronen in OSZ in der Regel in einer aktiven Schicht, die durch das Mischen von zwei Arten organischer Moleküle (Donator und Akzeptor) mit unterschiedlichen Energieniveaus gebildet wird. Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit konzentriert sich auf ein besseres Verständnis der Rolle des energetischen Versatzes und jedes Rekombinationskanals auf die Leistung dieser OSCs mit geringem Versatz. Durch die Kombination fortschrittlicher experimenteller Techniken mit optischer und elektrischer Simulation wurden wichtige Erkenntnisse über die energetischen Versätze zwischen CT und Exzitonen erlangt: 1. Die Stromdichte im Kurzschluss und der Füllfaktor von Systemen mit geringem Versatz werden weitgehend durch feldabhängige Ladungsgenerierung in solchen OSZ mit geringem Versatz bestimmt. Interessanterweise ist deutlich erkennbar, dass eine feldabhängige Ladungsgenerierung aus einer feldabhängigen Exzitonen-Dissociationsausbeute resultiert. 2. Der reduzierte energetische Versatz geht mit einem stark erhöhten bimolekularen Rekombinationskoeffizienten einher, der nicht allein durch die Wiederbevölkerung von Exzitonen aus CT-Zuständen erklärt werden kann. Dies deutet auf die Existenz eines anderen dunklen Zerfallsweges neben CT hin. Der zweite Schwerpunkt der Arbeit lag auf der technischen Perspektive. In dieser Arbeit wurde der Einfluss von optischen Artefakten in der differentiellen Absorptionsspektroskopie auf die Änderung der Probekonfiguration und der aktiven Schichtdicke untersucht. Es wird anhand optischer Simulationen und Experimente ausführlich und systematisch dargelegt und diskutiert, wie optische Artefakte, die durch ein nicht gleichmäßiges Ladungsprofil und Interferenzen verursacht werden, nicht nur die gemessenen Spektren, sondern auch die Zerfalldynamik in verschiedenen Messbedingungen manipulieren können. Am Ende dieser Studie wurde eine generalisierte Methodik auf Basis eines inversen optischen Übertragungsmatrixformalismus bereitgestellt, um die durch optische Artefakte manipulierten Spektren und Zerfalldynamiken zu korrigieren. Insgesamt ebnet diese Arbeit den Weg für ein tieferes Verständnis der Schlüsselaspekte für höhere Wirkungsgrade in OSZ mit geringem Versatz, sowohl aus Sicht der Gerätephysik als auch der Charakterisierungstechniken. KW - organic solar cell KW - organische Solarzelle KW - non-fullerene acceptors KW - Nicht-Fulleren-Akzeptoren KW - charge generation KW - Ladungsgenerierung KW - exciton dissociation KW - Exziton-Dissoziation KW - cavity effects KW - Hohlraumeffekte Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-621430 ER - 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 - Shoaee, Safa A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - Neher, Dieter T1 - The Role of Mobility on Charge Generation, Recombination, and Extraction in Polymer-Based Solar Cells JF - dvanced energy materials N2 - Organic semiconductors are of great interest for a broad range of optoelectronic applications due to their solution processability, chemical tunability, highly scalable fabrication, and mechanical flexibility. In contrast to traditional inorganic semiconductors, organic semiconductors are intrinsically disordered systems and therefore exhibit much lower charge carrier mobilities-the Achilles heel of organic photovoltaic cells. In this progress review, the authors discuss recent important developments on the impact of charge carrier mobility on the charge transfer state dissociation, and the interplay of free charge extraction and recombination. By comparing the mobilities on different timescales obtained by different techniques, the authors highlight the dispersive nature of these materials and how this reflects on the key processes defining the efficiency of organic photovoltaics. KW - charge generation KW - charge recombination KW - extraction KW - mobility KW - organic solar cells KW - polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunction Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201703355 SN - 1614-6832 SN - 1614-6840 VL - 8 IS - 28 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -