Tuning open-circuit voltage in organic solar cells by magnesium modified Alq(3)

The low molecular weight tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq(3)) has been incorporated with magnesium (Mg) that altered the nature of its opto-electronic characteristics. The lowering of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) in Mg:Alq(3), compared to pure Alq(3), creates a stronger field (exceeding the exciton binding energy) at the donor-acceptor junction to dissociate the photo-generated exciton and also provides a low barrier for electron transport across the device. In an electron-only device (described in the text), a current enhancement in excess of 10(3), with respect to pure Alq(3), could be observed at 10 V applied bias. Optimized Mg:Alq(3) layer, when introduced in the photovoltaic device, improves the power conversion efficiencies significantly to 0.15% compared to the pure Alq(3) device. The improvement in the photovoltaic performance has been attributed to the superior exciton dissociation and carrier transport.