Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.132, No.34, 11878-11880, 2010
Charge Transfer State Versus Hot Exciton Dissociation in Polymer-Fullerene Blended Solar Cells
We examine the significance of hot exciton dissociation in two archetypical polymer fullerene blend solar cells. Rather than evolving through a bound charge transfer state, hot processes are proposed to convert excitons directly into free charges. But we find that the internal quantum yields of carrier photogeneration are similar for both excitons and direct excitation of charge transfer states. The internal quantum yield, together with the temperature dependence of the current voltage characteristics, is consistent with negligible impact from hot exciton dissociation.