Ultra-thick semi-crystalline photoactive donor polymer for efficient indoor organic photovoltaics

An in-depth study on the photovoltaic characteristics under indoor lights, i.e., light-emitting diode (LED), fluorescent lamps, and halogen lamps, was performed with varying the photoactive layer thickness (120–870 nm), by comparing those under 1-sun condition. The semi-crystalline mid-gap photoactive polymer, poly[(2,5-bis(2-hexyldecyloxy)phenylene)-alt-(5,6-difluoro-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole)] (PPDT2FBT) and a fullerene derivative, [6,6]-phenyl C ₇₁ butyric acid methyl ester (PC ₇₀ BM) were used as a photoactive layer. In the contrary to the measurements under 1-sun condition, the indoor devices show a clearly different behavior, showing the thickness tolerant short-circuit current density (J _SC ) and fill factor (FF) values with 280–870 nm thick photoactive layers. The retained J _SC and FF values of thick indoor devices were discussed in terms of the parasitic resistance effects based on the single-diode equivalent circuit model. The much lower series/shunt resistance (Rs/R _P ) ratio was measured with thick photoactive layer (≥280 nm), resulting in negligible decreases in the J _SC and FF values even with a 870-nm-thick active layer under the LED condition. Under 1000 lx LED light, the PPDT2FBT:PC ₇₀ BM device showed an optimum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16% (max power density, 44.8 μW/cm ² ) with an open-circuit voltage of 587 mV, a J _SC of 117 μA/cm ² , and a FF of 65.2. The device with a 870-nm-thick active layer still exhibited an excellent performance with a PCE of 12.5%. These results clearly suggest that the critical parasitic resistance effects on the performance vary depending on the light illumination condition, and the large R _P associated with the viable thick photoactive layer and the well-matched absorption (of photoactive layer) with the irradiance spectrum (of indoor light) are essential to realize efficient indoor photovoltaic cells with high J _SC and FF.