Charge carrier mobility dynamics in organic semiconductors and solar cells

Abstract

Charge carrier mobility in organic semiconductors is not a constant value unambigously characterizing some particular material, but depends on the electric field, temperature and even on time after it was generated or injected. The time dependence is particularly important for the thin-film devices where charge carriers pass the organic layer before mobility reaching its stationary value. Here we give a review of experimental techniques with ultrafast time-resolution enabling one to address the mobility kinetics and analyse properties of the time-dependent mobility in conjugated polymers and organic solar cells. We analyse kinetics during the charge carrier generation and extraction of free charge carriers. The mobility typically decreases by several orders of magnitude on a picosecond-nanosecond time scale; however, its kinetics also depends on the investigation technique. The mobility kinetics in blends for bulk heterojunction solar cells strongly depends on the stoichiometric ratio of donor and acceptor materials.