Distributions of Potential and Contact-Induced Charges in Conventional Organic Photovoltaics

The interfaces of dissimilar materials play central roles in photophysical events in organic photovoltaics (OPVs). Depth profiles of electrostatic potential and contact-induced charges determine the energy-level lineup of the frontier orbitals at electrode/organic and organic heterointerfaces. They are critical for the elementary processes in an OPV cell, such as generation and diffusion of free carriers. A simple electrostatic model describes the energetics in organic heterojunctions supported by an electrode, and experiments via photoelectron spectroscopy and the Kelvin probe method validate the potential distribution in the stacking direction of the device. A comparative study has clarified the significance of Fermi-level pinning and resulting electrostatic fields in determining the energy-level alignment. In this review, we discuss how parameters of device constituents affect the distributions of potential and the dark charges in conventional OPVs comprising metallophthalocyanine and C₆₀ as donor and acceptor, respectively. The results of previous studies, together with additional numerical simulations, suggest that a number of the factors influence the depth profiles of the dark charge and potential, such as the work function of bottom materials, layer thickness, structural inhomogeneity at interfaces, top electrode, and stacking sequence.