Identification of the Origin of Ultralow Dark Currents in Organic Photodiodes

Organic bulk heterojunction photodiodes (OPDs) attract attention for sensing and imaging. Their detectivity is typically limited by a substantial reverse bias dark current density (Jd). Recently, using thermal admittance or spectral photocurrent measurements, Jd has been attributed to thermal charge generation mediated by mid-gap states. Here,...

High-Accuracy Photoplethysmography Array Using Near-Infrared Organic Photodiodes with Ultralow Dark Current

Reflectance oximeters based on organic photodiode (OPD) arrays offer the potential to map blood pulsation and oxygenation via photoplethysmography (PPG) over a large area and beyond the traditional sensing locations. Here, an organic reflectance PPG array based on 16 × 16 OPD pixels is developed. The individual pixels exhibit near-infrared...

A High-Resolution Thin-Film Fingerprint Sensor Using a Printed Organic Photodetector

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) have attracted much attention in recent years, due to their promise in large-area light sensing applications. Here, high-resolution slot-die-coated large-area bulk heterojunction organic photodiode (OPD) arrays are reported. The OPD uses a novel electron transport layer, indium gallium zinc oxide in combination with...

Organic Photodetectors and their Application in Large Area and Flexible Image Sensors: The Role of Dark Current

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) have gained increasing interest as they offer cost-effective fabrication methods using low temperature processes, making them particularly attractive for large area image detectors on lightweight flexible plastic substrates. Moreover, their photophysical and optoelectronic properties can be tuned both at a material...

On the Origin of Dark Current in Organic Photodiodes

Minimizing the reverse bias dark current while retaining external quantum efficiency is crucial if the light detection sensitivity of organic photodiodes (OPDs) is to compete with inorganic photodetectors. However, a quantitative relationship between the magnitude of the dark current density under reverse bias (Jd) and the properties of the bulk...

Stability of organic solar cells with PCDTBT donor polymer: An interlaboratory study

This work is part of the interlaboratory collaboration to study the stability of organic solar cells containing PCDTBT polymer as a donor material. The varieties of the OPV devices with different device architectures, electrode materials, encapsulation, and device dimensions were prepared by seven research laboratories. Sets of identical devices...

Near-infrared tandem organic photodiodes for future application in artificial retinal implants

Photovoltaic retinal prostheses show great potential to restore sight in patients suffering from degenerative eye diseases by electrical stimulation of the surviving neurons in the retinal network. Herein, organic photodiodes (OPDs) sensitive to near-infrared (NIR) light are evaluated as photovoltaic pixels for future application in retinal...

Photocurrent Amplification in Bulk Heterojunction Organic Phototransistors with Different Donor–Acceptor Ratio

In this paper, the amplification of the photocurrent in organic phototransistors (OPTs) employing bulk heterojunctions (BHJs) with different donor–acceptor ratios has been studied. As a model system, poly[2-methoxy-5-(3’,7’-dimethyloctyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene] (OC1C10-PPV) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) are used as...

Light stability of ITO-free semi-transparent and opaque organic photovoltaic devices

Intrinsic light stability of transparent MoO3/Ag/TiO2 electrode is studied in four different polymer:fullerene solar cell configurations. We demonstrate that this stack can successfully replace ITO both in superstrate and substrate configurations required for non-transparent carriers. Although we observe that exposure of thin Ag layer directly...

Tuning the viscosity of halogen free bulk heterojunction inks for inkjet printed organic solar cells

For the solution processing of organic photovoltaics on an industrial scale, the exclusion of halogenated solvents is a necessity. However, the limited solubility of most semiconducting polymer/fullerene blends in non-halogenated solvents results in ink formulations with low viscosities which poses limitations to the use of roll-to-roll...

Four-terminal organic solar cell modules with increased annual energy yield

The authors present experimental results on mechanically stacked organic solar modules and their advantage over standard tandem architectures. A four-terminal configuration of two single junction modules with complementary absorbing active layers uses the more efficient energy conversion of a tandem structure without the necessity of matching...

Influence of the isomeric composition of the acceptor on the performance of organic bulk heterojunction P3HT:bis-PCBM solar cells

We synthesized three isomeric subpopulations of bisadduct analogues of [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (bis-PCBM) via tether-directed control. Bulk heterojunction solar cells prepared using these isomers together with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) resulted in an increase of Jsc from 72.4 to 79.6 A m-2, and an improvement in fill...

Ultimate performance of polymer: Fullerene bulk heterojunction tandem solar cells

We present the model calculations to explore the potential of polymer:fullerene tandem solar cells. As an approach we use a combined optical and electrical device model, where the absorption profiles are used as starting point for the numerical current-voltage calculations. With this model a maximum power efficiency of 11.7% for single cells has...

Origin of the dark-current ideality factor in polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells

In organic bulk heterojunction solar cells, a deviation of the ideality factor of the dark current from unity is commonly put forward as evidence for the presence of trap-assisted recombination. We demonstrate that the non-ideality of the dark characteristics is determined by deeply trapped carriers in the transport-dominating constituent of the...

Role of balanced charge carrier transport in low band gap polymer: Fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells

Lowering of the optical band gap of conjugated polymers in bulk heterojunction solar cells not only leads to an increased absorption but also to an increase of the optimal active layer thickness due to interference effects at longer wavelengths. The increased carrier densities due to the enhanced absorption and thicker active layers make low...

Impact of molecular weight on charge carrier dissociation in solar cells from a polyfluorene derivative

The effect of the molecular weight of poly[9,9-didecanefluorene-alt-(bis-thienylene) benzothiadiazole] (PF10TBT) on the photovoltaic performance of fullerene-based bulk heterojunction solar cells is investigated. An increase in molecular weight of two orders of magnitude results in a 30% increase of the short-circuit current and a rise of the...

Charge transfer dynamics in polymer-fullerene blends for efficient solar cells

Blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and the bis-adduct of [6,61-pheuyl-C\61-butyric acid methyl ester (bisPCBM) show enhanced performances in bulk-heterojunction solar cells compared to P3HT:PCBM thin films due to their higher open-circuit voltage. However, it is not clear whether the decrease of the shortcircuit current observed in P3HT...

Electron trapping in higher adduct fullerene-based solar cells

Here, the performance of bulk-heterojunction solar cells based on a series of bisadduct analogues of commonly used derivatives of C60 and C 70, such PCBMs and theirthienyl versions, is investigated. Dueto their higher lowest unoccupied molecular orbital an increase in open-circuit voltage and thus performance is expected. It is shown that the...