Symposium A

Carrier lifetime in bulk heterojunction solar cells

Organizer: Carsten Deibel (Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, Germany)

Evening 23 may 2010 (18 to 20 h)

The outstanding improvement of the performance of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells has refreshed the interest of many research groups to study photophysics and charge transport of these devices for a detailed understanding of their function. One central parameter governing the power conversion efficiency of solar cells is the carrier lifetime. Several methods have been presented to determine the lifetime, and it is important to establish that the different methods converge to a single measured quantity. In addition, the interpretation of the variation of the lifetime with the steady state condition of the solar cells requires a proper model for device operation and recombination mechanism to be established. Within this seminar, the techniques of measurement, the lifetime dependence on carrier density or potential, the models for the interpretation etc will be discussed. A selected list of participants will present brief talks, followed by a general discussion. All participants of the HOPV 2010 Conference are invited to attend the seminar.

Topics which might be discussed include:

• different recombination regimes (depending on the light intensity)
• the order of recombination (second, third, trapping?)
• applicability of Langevin recombination
• etc

Discussion pannel:

• James Durrant, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, South Kensington SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
• Germa Garcia-Belmonte, Photovoltaic and Optolectronic Devices Group, Departament de Física, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castello �, Spain
• Gytis Juska, Department of Solid State Electronics, Vilnius University, Sauletekio 9 III k., 10222 Vilnius, Lithuania
• Tom Savenije, Optoelectronic Materials Section, DelftChemTech, Delft University of Technology, Julianalaan 136, 2628 BLDelft, The Netherlands