Performance enhancement of diindenoperylene-based organic photovoltaic cells by nanocolumn-arrays

Abstract Crystalline and uniform nanocolumns of the organic semiconductor diindenoperylene (DIP) were fabricated by glancing-angle deposition and employed in organic photovoltaic cells (OPVCs) forming an interdigitated donor/acceptor heterojunction, with fullerene as electron acceptor. In comparison to reference bilayer devices the nanocolumn-based solar cells exhibit increased power conversion efficiency. Based on a comprehensive structural and morphological analysis, we identify three advantages of the interdigitated nanocolumn structures: (i) The active donor/acceptor interface area, crucial for exciton dissociation, is increased and the column diameter is in the range of the exciton diffusion length. (ii) The molecular orientation of DIP is such in the nanocolumns that light absorption is enhanced. (iii) The ubiquitous presence of vertical interfaces throughout nanocolumn-based devices is further beneficial to light absorption, as it fully compensates wavelength-dependent interference effects within the device structure. This work shows how the benefits of nanocolumns can go beyond simple interface area enlargement to improve the efficiency of OPVCs.