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Main Authors: Langentepe-Kong, Jonathan L., Pranav, Manasi, Shoaee, Safa, Neher, Dieter
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.15603
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author Langentepe-Kong, Jonathan L.
Pranav, Manasi
Shoaee, Safa
Neher, Dieter
author_facet Langentepe-Kong, Jonathan L.
Pranav, Manasi
Shoaee, Safa
Neher, Dieter
contents The power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells has recently improved beyond 20%. The active layers of these devices comprise of at least two organic semiconductors, forming a type II heterojunction. Hereby, the device performance is determined by the kinetic interplay of various species, including localized excitons, charge transfer states as well as charge-separated states. However, a model which describes all relevant photovoltaic measures has yet to be developed. Herein, we present a comprehensive 5-state rate model which includes both singlet and triplet charge transfer states and takes into account the formation, re-splitting and decay of the local triplet state, parametric in the respective energy offset. We show that this model not only describes key device properties such as charge generation efficiency, photoluminescence, electroluminescence and Langevin reduction factor simultaneously but also elucidate how these vary across material combinations based on the D:A interfacial energy offset alone. We find that the electroluminescence and Langevin reduction factor depend strongly on the triplet properties and that the triplet decay becomes the dominant charge recombination pathway for systems with moderate offset, in full agreement to previous experimental results. Validation against literature data demonstrates the model's ability to predict the device efficiency accurately. Subsequently, we identify material combinations with singlet exciton to charge transfer state energetic offset of roughly 150meV as particularly promising. Our model explains further why recent certified efficiency records for binary blends remain at ca. 20% if no further means to improve photon and charge carrier harvesting are taken.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_15603
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Triplet Excitons Reconcile Charge Generation and Recombination in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells: Efficiency Limits from a 5-State Model
Langentepe-Kong, Jonathan L.
Pranav, Manasi
Shoaee, Safa
Neher, Dieter
Materials Science
The power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells has recently improved beyond 20%. The active layers of these devices comprise of at least two organic semiconductors, forming a type II heterojunction. Hereby, the device performance is determined by the kinetic interplay of various species, including localized excitons, charge transfer states as well as charge-separated states. However, a model which describes all relevant photovoltaic measures has yet to be developed. Herein, we present a comprehensive 5-state rate model which includes both singlet and triplet charge transfer states and takes into account the formation, re-splitting and decay of the local triplet state, parametric in the respective energy offset. We show that this model not only describes key device properties such as charge generation efficiency, photoluminescence, electroluminescence and Langevin reduction factor simultaneously but also elucidate how these vary across material combinations based on the D:A interfacial energy offset alone. We find that the electroluminescence and Langevin reduction factor depend strongly on the triplet properties and that the triplet decay becomes the dominant charge recombination pathway for systems with moderate offset, in full agreement to previous experimental results. Validation against literature data demonstrates the model's ability to predict the device efficiency accurately. Subsequently, we identify material combinations with singlet exciton to charge transfer state energetic offset of roughly 150meV as particularly promising. Our model explains further why recent certified efficiency records for binary blends remain at ca. 20% if no further means to improve photon and charge carrier harvesting are taken.
title Triplet Excitons Reconcile Charge Generation and Recombination in Low-Offset Organic Solar Cells: Efficiency Limits from a 5-State Model
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.15603