The roles of traps in the energy loss for aged organic solar cells: A transient photovoltage study

摘要

By investigating the turn-on and turn-off photovoltage dynamics as a function of aging time, we reported the roles of traps on the energy loss in organic solar cells composing of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc)/fullerene (C60). Illuminating the device with square pulses of light, a peak of transient photovoltage after turn-on was observed after device degradation. After turn-off, the transient photovoltage first goes to the negative before settling back to zero, which is the result of electron trapping in the C60 layer before being neutralized by re-injected holes. Furthermore, by adding a tris (8-hydroxyquinolinato) aluminum buffer to prevent the traps from propagating into C60 layer, the peak after turn-on is greatly suppressed and the negative peak after turn-off vanishes, supporting the trapped electrons in the C60 layer play the critical role in the appearance of peak of the transient photovoltage.