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Percolation Toward Lateral Junctions

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Organic Solar Cells

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Abstract

In the field of organic solar cells, nanostructure fabrication with electron and hole transport routes in the blended donor (D) and acceptor (A) molecules based on percolation remains a problem. The author believes that to overcome this difficulty, novel methods for the fabrication of intentionally designed nanostructures that do not rely on random luck assisted by percolation should be introduced. Based on this consideration, we have proposed several new principles of donor/acceptor junctions that can act as alternative blended junctions. First, we proposed a vertical superlattice junction (vertical alternating multilayered junction), by utilizing cross sections of vacuum-deposited multilayers with angstrom-order precision. We confirmed that the vertical superlattice has the ability to collect both excitons and carriers, although the area of the vertical superlattice junction is very small. We also proposed an advanced lateral multilayered junction using high-mobility organic semiconductors. An essential point is that the photogenerated holes and electrons are laterally transported and extracted to the respective electrodes. A total of 93% of the photogenerated electrons and holes were laterally collected over a millimeter-scale distance of 0.14 mm. The exciton-collection efficiency reached 75% in the lateral junction with a layer thickness of 10 nm. The lateral junctions have the ability to collect both excitons and carriers, have sufficient cell area, and can be regarded as an alternative blended junction for organic solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

Funding from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) is appreciated. Financial support from JSPS, KAKENHI (No. 17H02768) is gratefully acknowledged. The author appreciates A. Adachi and S. Ohashi of EpiTech Co. (Kyoto, Japan) for the design and construction of the movable mask system.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Institute for Molecular Science, 5-1 Higashiyama Myodaiji, Okazaki, 444-8787, Aichi, Japan

    Masahiro Hiramoto

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  1. Masahiro Hiramoto
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Correspondence to Masahiro Hiramoto .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Molecular Science, Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan

    Masahiro Hiramoto

  2. Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan

    Seiichiro Izawa

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Hiramoto, M. (2021). Percolation Toward Lateral Junctions. In: Hiramoto, M., Izawa, S. (eds) Organic Solar Cells. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9113-6_3

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