Charge-transfer state dynamics following hole and electron transfer in organic photovoltaic devices

Artem A. Bakulin*, Stoichko D. Dimitrov, Akshay Rao, Philip C.Y. Chow, Christian B. Nielsen, Bob C. Schroeder, Iain McCulloch, Huib J. Bakker, James R. Durrant, Richard H. Friend

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

125 Scopus citations

Abstract

The formation of bound electron-hole pairs, also called charge-transfer (CT) states, in organic-based photovoltaic devices is one of the dominant loss mechanisms hindering performance. Whereas CT state dynamics following electron transfer from donor to acceptor have been widely studied, there is not much known about the dynamics of bound CT states produced by hole transfer from the acceptor to the donor. In this letter, we compare the dynamics of CT states formed in the different charge-transfer pathways in a range of model systems. We show that the nature and dynamics of the generated CT states are similar in the case of electron and hole transfer. However the yield of bound and free charges is observed to be strongly dependent on the HOMOD-HOMOA and LUMOD-LUMOA energy differences of the material system. We propose a qualitative model in which the effects of static disorder and sampling of states during the relaxation determine the probability of accessing CT states favorable for charge separation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)209-215
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 3 2013
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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