Profiling exciton generation and recombination in conventional and inverted bulk heterojunction organic solar cells

Applying the optical transfer matrix method and the drift-diffusion equations, the efficient light absorption, exciton generation, and recombination rate in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs) with conventional and inverted configurations are studied. Analysing the influence of the electric field component of the electromagnetic radiation propagating through the layered structure of BHJ OSCs and using contour plots of normalized modulus squared of the electric field, the constructive interference points (CIPs) which represent the positions of maximum absorption of photons and hence generation of excitons within the active layer are investigated for both the conventional and inverted OSCs. Also, the influence of the thicknesses of other layers in both the inverted and conventional structures is investigated. It is found that except the thickness of MoO₃ in the inverted structure the thicknesses of other layers do not have any significant influence on CIPs. The maximum CIP occurs at an active layer thickness of 190 nm, regardless of the thickness of the second layer, which is MoO₃, Ag, or ITO in the inverted structure and PEDOT:PSS, Al, or ITO in the conventional structure. The results of 3D plots of the normalized modulus squared of the electric field reveal that the absorption of photons at the end of the active layer in the inverted structure is higher than that in the conventional structure for all the effective wavelengths and different active layer thicknesses. It is expected that this study provides a deeper understanding of exciton generation within the two structures.