The interconnection between efficiency and morphology of two component systems in plastic solar cells

Using the ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer with long-living charge separation in the conjugated polymer/fullerene thin films, photovoltaic devices have been fabricated. The photoinduced charge separation happens with internal quantum efficiency near unity. The performance of such "bulk heterojunction" photovoltaic devices is critically dependent on the transport properties of the interpenetrating network. The influence of the variation of different donor / acceptor materials on the sample morphology is monitored by atomic force microscopy (AFM), while I/V characteristics have been studied to evaluate the conversion efficiency.