Adjusting the energy of interfacial states in organic photovoltaics for maximum efficiency

A critical bottleneck for improving the performance of organic solar cells (OSC) is minimising non-radiative losses in the interfacial charge-transfer (CT) state via the formation of hybrid energetic states. This requires small energetic offsets often detrimental for high external quantum efficiency (EQE). Here, we obtain OSC with both non-radiative voltage losses (0.24 V) and photocurrent losses (EQE > 80%) simultaneously minimised. The interfacial CT states separate into free carriers with ≈40-ps time constant. We combine device and spectroscopic data to model the thermodynamics of charge separation and extraction, revealing that the relatively high performance of the devices arises from an optimal adjustment of the CT state energy, which determines how the available overall driving force is efficiently used to maximize both exciton splitting and charge separation. The model proposed is universal for donor:acceptor (D:A) with low driving forces and predicts which D:A will benefit from a morphology optimization for highly efficient OSC.