Dynamics of excitons and carriers at the NPB/C60 interface by transient photocurrents

Abstract 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/C60/Al structure was designed to study the interfacial processes at the NPB/C60 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 C60, and the subsequent positive signal can be attributed to the diffusion of electrons that accumulate at the NPB/C60 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 C60 but also provided an effective interface for exciton dissociation.