Roles of binding energy and diffusion length of singlet and triplet excitons in organic heterojunction solar cells

The influence of binding energy and diffusion length on the dissociation of excitons in organic solids is studied. The binding energy and excitonic Bohr radius of singlet and triplet excitons are calculated and compared using the dissociation energy of 0.3 eV, which is provided by the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital offset in heterojunction organic solar cells. A relation between the diffusion coefficient and diffusion length of singlet and triplet excitons is derived using the Forster and Dexter transfer processes and are plotted as a function of the donor-acceptor separation. The diffusion length reduces nearly to a zero if the distance between donor and acceptor is increased to more than 1.5 nm. It is found that the donor-acceptor separation needs to be <= 1.5 nm for easy dissociation on singlet excitons leading to better conversion efficiency in heterojunction organic solar cells. (C) 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim