Modeling the Free Carrier Recombination Kinetics in PTB7: PCBM Organic Photovoltaics

Stefan D. Oosterhout*, Andrew J. Ferguson, Bryon W. Larson, Dana C. Olson, Nikos Kopidakis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Currently the exact recombination mechanism of free carriers in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices is poorly understood. Often a reduced Langevin model is used to describe the decay behavior of electrons and holes. Here we propose a novel, simple kinetic model that accurately describes the decay behavior of free carriers in the PTB7:PCBM organic photovoltaic blend. This model needs to only take into account free and trapped holes in the polymer, and free electrons in the fullerene, to accurately describe the recombination behavior of free carriers as measured by time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC). The model is consistent for different PTB7:PCBM blend ratios and spans a light intensity range of over 3 orders of magnitude. The model demonstrates that dark carriers exist in the polymer and interact with photoinduced charge carriers, and that the trapping and detrapping rates of the holes are of high importance to the overall carrier lifetime. (Figure Presented).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24597-24604
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry C
Volume120
Issue number43
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Nov 2016

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