jp5b10276_si_001.pdf (1.06 MB)
Resonance Energy Transfer Enables Efficient Planar Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells
journal contribution
posted on 2016-01-14, 00:00 authored by Obadiah
G. Reid, Garry RumblesPoor energy transport in disordered
organic materials is one of
the key problems that must be overcome to produce efficient organic
solar cells. Usually, this is accomplished by blending the donor and
acceptor molecules into a bulk heterojunction. In this article, we
investigate an alternative approach to cell design: planar mulitilayer
hetrojunctions with efficient energy transport to a central reaction
center. We use an experimentally verified Monte Carlo model of energy
transport to show that an appropriately engineered planar multilayer
stack can achieve power conversion efficiencies comparable to those
of the best bulk heterojunction devices. The key to this surprising
performance is careful control of the optical properties and thicknesses
of each layer to promote Förster resonance energy transfer
from antenna/transport layers to a central reaction center. We provide
detailed design rules for fabricating efficient planar heterojunction
organic cells.