Unraveling Urbach Tail Effects in High-Performance Organic Photovoltaics: Dynamic vs Static Disorder

Chujun Zhang; Sudhi Mahadevan; Jun Yuan; Johnny Ka Wai Ho; Yaxin Gao; Wei Liu; Hui Zhong; He Yan; Yingping Zou; Sai-Wing Tsang; Shu Kong So

doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.2c00816

journal article·2022-06-10Open access

Unraveling Urbach Tail Effects in High-Performance Organic Photovoltaics: Dynamic vs Static Disorder

Chujun Zhang, Sudhi Mahadevan, Jun Yuan, Johnny Ka Wai Ho, Yaxin Gao, Wei Liu, Hui Zhong, He Yan, Yingping Zou, Sai-Wing Tsang, Shu Kong So

ACS Energy Letters· Volume 7· Issue 6

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Source abstract

Abstract

The origin of Urbach energy (EU) in organic semiconductors and its effect on photovoltaic properties remain a topic of intense interest. In this letter, we demonstrate quantitative information on the EU value in emerging Y-series molecules by an in-depth analysis of the line shape of the temperature-dependent quantum efficiency spectra. We found that the static disorder (EU(0)), which is dominated by the conformational uniformity in Y-series acceptors, contributes 10-25 meV to the total Urbach energy. Particularly, this static contribution in organic solar cells (OSCs) is much higher than those (EU(0) ≈ 3-6 meV) in inorganic/hybrid counterparts, such as CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite, crystalline silicon (c-Si), gallium nitride (GaN), indium phosphide (InP), and gallium arsenide (GaAs). More importantly, we establish clear correlations between the static disorder and photovoltaic performance and open-circuit voltage loss. These results suggest that suppressing the static disorder via rational molecular design is clearly a path for achieving higher performance. © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

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Research context

Electronic materials

OpenAlex topics: Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics · Perovskite Materials and Applications · Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Physics and Institute of Advanced Materials Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong 999077, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Center of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films (COSDAF) City University of Hong Kong Kowloon Tong 999077, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Central South University Changsha 410083, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

College of Metallurgy and Environment Central South University Changsha 410083, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

Department of Chemistry and Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Clear Water Bay 999077, Hong Kong SAR, People’s Republic of China

Funding

Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee · National Natural Science Foundation of China

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