Optimum charge carrier mobility in organic solar cells

In organic semiconductors the recombination mechanism is of the Langevin type, controlled by the mobility of the charge carriers. As a result, in organic solar cells the mobility simultaneously controls both the carrier extraction and the losses via carrier recombination. The authors demonstrate that the balance between carrier losses by extraction and by recombination leads to a distinct optimum in the carrier mobility with regard to the efficiency of organic solar cells. For low mobilities recombination losses limit the performance, whereas the efficient extraction at high mobilities leads to a reduction of the open-circuit voltage. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics