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A dynamic Monte Carlo study of anomalous current voltage behaviour in organic solar cells

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posted on 2025-05-09, 10:14 authored by K. Feron, Xiaojing ZhouXiaojing Zhou, Warwick BelcherWarwick Belcher, C. J. Fell, Paul DastoorPaul Dastoor
We present a dynamic Monte Carlo (DMC) study of s-shaped current-voltage (I-V) behaviour in organic solar cells. This anomalous behaviour causes a substantial decrease in fill factor and thus power conversion efficiency. We show that this s-shaped behaviour is induced by charge traps that are located at the electrode interface rather than in the bulk of the active layer, and that the anomaly becomes more pronounced with increasing trap depth or density. Furthermore, the s-shape anomaly is correlated with interface recombination, but not bulk recombination, thus highlighting the importance of controlling the electrode interface. While thermal annealing is known to remove the s-shape anomaly, the reason has been not clear, since these treatments induce multiple simultaneous changes to the organic solar cell structure. The DMC modelling indicates that it is the removal of aluminium clusters at the electrode, which act as charge traps, that removes the anomalous I-V behaviour. Finally, this work shows that the s-shape becomes less pronounced with increasing electron-hole recombination rate; suggesting that efficient organic photovoltaic material systems are more susceptible to these electrode interface effects.

History

Journal title

Journal of Applied Physics

Volume

116

Issue

21

Publisher

American Institute of Physics

Language

  • en, English

College/Research Centre

Faculty of Science and Information Technology

School

School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Rights statement

© American Institute of Physics

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