Effects of Triplet Excitons on Photocurrent of Polymer Photovoltaic Devices

The rolls of triplet excitons in a polymer based photovoltaic (PV) device are investigated for improving the efficiency of PV devices. Generally, the thick photo-absorbing layer can improve the PV device efficiency by increasing the photon absorption. However, in case of PV devices with singlet excitons, the efficiency is limited by the short exciton diffusion length, which depends on the mobility and lifetimes of excitons. Therefore, using the triplet excitons, which have a higher mobility and longer lifetime, can solve the problem of premature exciton dissociation caused by the shorter singlet exciton diffusion length in the thick photo-absorbing layer. In this study, the triplet exciton dynamics of a conjugated polymer in a phosphorescent dye blended polymer PV device is investigated by photo-induced absorption, and PV devices performance at various concentrations of phosphorescent dye are is also evaluated.