Physique et Modèles de Dispositifs Photovoltaïques Plastiques

This thesis discusses the operation and mechanisms of plastic solar cells made up using heterojunction/bulk-heterojunction of different donors and acceptors. Main emphasis is to highlight and address the forefront requirements for realization of efficient solar cells that would help develop new efficient donor-acceptor compositions. New class of efficient photovoltaic devices are prepared and electrically characterized. The results from these devices provide a better understanding of the exciton generation and dissociation phenomenon in organic solar cells. For the first time, highly luminescent organic semiconductor material rubrene is used as a donor in solar cell architecture, resulting in formation of an organic dual function device with photovoltaic (PV) and electroluminescence (EL) behavior integrated. The intriguing operation of extremely low voltage (< 1V) required for light emission from such dual function device is described as an energy up-conversion process; a phenomenon rarely observed in organic heterojunctions