Paul Pahner

Hole-transport material variation in fully vacuum deposited perovskite solar cells

This work addresses the effect of energy level alignment between the hole-transporting material and the active layer in vacuum deposited, planar-heterojunction CH3NH3PbIx−3Clx perovskite solar cells. Through a series of hole-transport materials, with conductivity values set using controlled p-doping of the layer, we correlate their ionization potentials with the open-circuit voltage of the device. With ionization potentials beyond 5.3 eV, a substantial decrease in both current density and voltage is observed, which highlights the delicate energetic balance between driving force for hole-extraction and maximizing the photovoltage. In contrast, when an optimal ionization potential match is found, the open-circuit voltage can be maximized, leading to power conversion efficiencies of up to 10.9%. These values are obtained with hole-transport materials that differ from the commonly used Spiro-MeO-TAD and correspond to a 40% performance increase versus this reference.

Density of states determination in organic donor-acceptor blend layers enabled by molecular doping

Charge carrier transport is a key parameter determining the efficiency of organic solar cells, and is closely related to the density of free and trapped states. For trap characterization, impedance spectroscopy is a suitable, non-invasive method, applicable to complete organic semiconductor devices. In order to contribute to the capacitive signal, the traps must be filled with charge carriers. Typically, trap filling is achieved by illuminating the device or by injecting charge carriers through application of a forward bias voltage. However, in both cases, the exact number of charge carriers in the device is not known and depends strongly on the measurement conditions. Here, hole trap states of the model blend layer ZnPc:C60 are filled by weak p-doping, enabling trap characterization in a blend layer at a controlled hole density. We evaluate impedance spectra at different temperatures in order to determine the density of occupied states (DOOS) directly from the capacitance-frequency spectra by assuming a ...

Elementary steps in electrical doping of organic semiconductors

Fermi level control by doping is established since decades in inorganic semiconductors and has been successfully introduced in organic semiconductors. Despite its commercial success in the multi-billion OLED display business, molecular doping is little understood, with its elementary steps controversially discussed and mostly-empirical-materials design. Particularly puzzling is the efficient carrier release, despite a presumably large Coulomb barrier. Here we quantitatively investigate doping as a two-step process, involving single-electron transfer from donor to acceptor molecules and subsequent dissociation of the ground-state integer-charge transfer complex (ICTC). We show that carrier release by ICTC dissociation has an activation energy of only a few tens of meV, despite a Coulomb binding of several 100 meV. We resolve this discrepancy by taking energetic disorder into account. The overall doping process is explained by an extended semiconductor model in which occupation of ICTCs causes the classically known reserve regime at device-relevant doping concentrations.Molecular doping is routinely used in organic semiconductor devices nowadays, but the physics at play remains unclarified. Tietze et al. describe it as a two-step process and show it costs little, energetically, to dissociate charge transfer complexes due to energetic disorder of organic semiconductors.

Analyzing the n-Doping Mechanism of an air stable Small Molecule Precursor

Efficient n-doping of organic semiconductors requires electron-donating molecules with small ionization energies, making such n-dopants usually sensitive to degradation under air exposure. A workaround consists in the usage of air-stable precursor molecules containing the actual n-doping species. Here, we systematically analyze the doping mechanism of the small-molecule precursor o-MeO-DMBI-Cl, which releases a highly reducing o-MeO-DMBI radical upon thermal evaporation. n-Doping of N,N-bis(fluoren-2-yl)-naphthalene tetracarboxylic diimide yields air-stable and highly conductive films suitable for application as electron transport layer in organic solar cells. By photoelectron spectroscopy, we determine a reduced doping efficiency at high doping concentrations. We attribute this reduction to a change of the precursor decomposition mechanism with rising crucible temperature, yielding an undesired demethylation at high evaporation rates. Our results do not only show the possibility of efficient and air-stable n-doping, but also support the design of novel air-stable precursor molecules of strong n-dopants.

Beyond conventional organic transistors: novel approaches with improved performance and stability

Organic electronics hold the promise of enabling the field of flexible electronics. Several novel organic transistor concepts based on the technology of molecular doping are presented that open new directions to improve the performance of OFETs. The realization of doped organic transistors as well as organic junction field-effect transistors is demonstrated. Furthermore, vertical transistor concepts with channel lengths in the sub-micrometer regime are discussed.

Publisher Correction: Elementary steps in electrical doping of organic semiconductors

The original version of this Article contained an error in Equation 1. A factor of ‘c’ was included in the right-hand term. This has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.