Current Applied Physics, Vol.20, No.5, 648-652, 2020
Dynamics of excitons and carriers at the NPB/C-60 interface by transient photocurrents
The transient photocurrent (TPC) technique was performed to explore the dynamics of excitons and carriers at organic active layer/buffer layer interfaces. A special device with ITO/PEIE/NPB/C-60/Al structure was designed to study the interfacial processes at the NPB/C-60 interface. An external electrical field was provided to neutralize the built-in electrical field of the device. Interestingly, a new phenomenon was observed, wherein the polarity of the TPC changed from negative to positive under an external electrical field. The initial negative signal was ascribed to exciton separation by the built-in field in C-60, and the subsequent positive signal can be attributed to the diffusion of electrons that accumulate at the NPB/C-60 interface. TPC measurements shown that further increasing the external electrical field causes polarity to change twice. Analyzing the two changes in polarity revealed that the NPB did not only extract holes from C-60 but also provided an effective interface for exciton dissociation.