King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia; Department of Physics, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University , PO Box 383, Dammam 31113, Saudi Arabia
Department of Physics, Chair for Functional Materials, Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Natural Sciences , James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Tomáš Váry
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Slovak University of Technology , 812 19 Bratislava, Slovakia
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
Sandra P Gonzalez Lopez
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
Wejdan Alsufyani
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
Department of Physics, Chair for Functional Materials, Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Natural Sciences , James-Franck-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany; Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technical University of Munich , Lichtenbergstr. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Laboratory of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry (IOMC), Friedrich Schiller University Jena , Humboldtstr. 10, D-07743 Jena, Germany; Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry Jena (CEEC Jena), Friedrich Schiller University Jena , Philosophenweg 7a, D-07743 Jena, Germany
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), KAUST Solar Center (KSC), Physical Sciences and Engineering Division (PSE) , Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
Thermal annealing alters the morphology of organic donor-acceptor bulk-heterojunction thin films used in organic solar cells. Here, we studied the influence of thermal annealing on blends of amorphous regio-random (RRa) and semi-crystalline regio-regular (RR) poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and the fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C _60 -butyric acid methyl ester. Since the P3HT:PCBM blend is one of the most studied in the OPV community, the existing research provides a solid foundation for us to compare and benchmark our innovative characterization techniques that have been previously under-utilized to investigate bulk heterojunction organic thin films. Here, we combine advanced novel microscopies and spectroscopies, including polarized light microscopy, photo-deflection spectroscopy, hyperspectral photoluminescence imaging, and energy resolved-electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, with structural characterization techniques, including grazing-incidence wide-angle x-ray scattering, grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy, in order to reveal the impact of thermal annealing on the microstructural crystallinity and morphology of the photoactive layer in organic solar cells. Coupled transfer matrix and drift-diffusion simulations were used to study the impact of the density of states on the solar cells’ device performance parameters, namely the short-circuit current ( J _SC ), open circuit voltage ( V _OC ), fill factor (FF), and power conversion efficiency (PCE).
