Organic Solar Cells at IAPP
Moritz Riede
TU Dresden

Jan. 26, 2012, 1 p.m.


Organic solar cells have attracted increasing attention in recent years and their development has reached a stage at which several companies are preparing to make them commercially available. Despite lower power conversion efficiencies than their inorganic counterparts, organic solar cells have the potential to become a low-cost alternative, due to low material consumption, simple processing methods as well as the possibility for flexible and light-weight devices. One very promising approach for organic solar cells is based on the thermal evaporation of small molecules in vacuum to created an organic stack in the p-i-n concept, i.e. having an intrinsic absorber layer sandwiched between p- and n-doped wide gap transport layers[1]. The key to this concept is the controlled molecular doping of thin organic films. It allows for an active control of the Fermi level in the doped layers, making transport layers highly conductive and creating ohm\ADic contacts to the electrodes. The result is a very versatile platform not only for the investigation of fundamental processes like the generation of free charge carriers at the donor-acceptor heterojunction, but also for device optimisation. This presentation summarises important recent developments and describes how the synthesis of new organic semiconductors with tailored properties, tuning the morphology of the active layers, adaption of inorganic device concepts like tandem devices, and improved light incoupling have lead to major improvements. It further outlines the current research strategies for improving the basic physical understanding, obtaining higher device efficiencies and lifetimes.
[1] K. Walzer et al., Chem. Rev. 107, 1233 (2007)



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Organic Solar Cells at IAPP
Moritz Riede
TU Dresden

Jan. 26, 2012, 1 p.m.


Organic solar cells have attracted increasing attention in recent years and their development has reached a stage at which several companies are preparing to make them commercially available. Despite lower power conversion efficiencies than their inorganic counterparts, organic solar cells have the potential to become a low-cost alternative, due to low material consumption, simple processing methods as well as the possibility for flexible and light-weight devices. One very promising approach for organic solar cells is based on the thermal evaporation of small molecules in vacuum to created an organic stack in the p-i-n concept, i.e. having an intrinsic absorber layer sandwiched between p- and n-doped wide gap transport layers[1]. The key to this concept is the controlled molecular doping of thin organic films. It allows for an active control of the Fermi level in the doped layers, making transport layers highly conductive and creating ohm\ADic contacts to the electrodes. The result is a very versatile platform not only for the investigation of fundamental processes like the generation of free charge carriers at the donor-acceptor heterojunction, but also for device optimisation. This presentation summarises important recent developments and describes how the synthesis of new organic semiconductors with tailored properties, tuning the morphology of the active layers, adaption of inorganic device concepts like tandem devices, and improved light incoupling have lead to major improvements. It further outlines the current research strategies for improving the basic physical understanding, obtaining higher device efficiencies and lifetimes.
[1] K. Walzer et al., Chem. Rev. 107, 1233 (2007)



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