Reducing recombination in organic photovoltaics

In this thesis, I consider two methods to improve organic photovoltaic efficiency: energy level cascades and promotion of triplet state excitons. The former relies on a thin layer of material placed between the active layers of a photovoltaic device to destabilize excitons. If the interfacial material is chosen properly, it can significantly improve device performance. The second method proposes to use quantum mechanical rules to reduce the rate of loss in organic photovoltaic devices. An electron in a triplet state cannot directly drop to the ground state by emitting a photon, so triplet excitons have longer lifetimes, and are thus more likely to diffuse to an interface to be dissociated. But this work suggests that, once they are at the interface, they are less likely to be dissociated than a singlet.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Sussman, Jason M. (Jason Michael)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Marc A. Baldo.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69673

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/69673