C.J. Brabec V. Dyakonov J. Parisi N.S. Sariciftci (Eds.) Organic Photovoltaics Concepts and Realization With 148 FiguresPreface During and immediately after the oil crisis in the early 1970s, a tremendous effort was devoted to the development of photovoltaic solar cells, in order to utilize the cleanest of all possible renewable energy sources, i.e., sunshine. The well-established silicon device technology totally dominates the market today. Organic semiconducting materials represent a promising alternative and a rather new approach, even though the basics of photovoltaic applica- tions were described some time ago. Compounds such as merocyanines? and phthalocyanines? that are readily deposited as thin films by vacuum evap- oration gave solar-to-electric power conversion efficiencies of about 1% for small-sized photovoltaic elements. Achieving efficient solar energy conversion on a large scale and at low cost is one of the most important technological challenges for the near fu- ture. It therefore appears highly intriguing to think of extensive organic solar cells based on transparent, flexible, cheap, and easy-to-process thin plastic films, cut from rolls and deployed on permanent structures and surfaces. Whereas conjugated polymers have found successful technological applica- tions as light-emitting diodes, the first attempt to prepare photovoltaic el- ements with these materials alone (e.g., polyacetylene) was rather discour- aging.* Indeed, the photovoltaic effect involves the generation of electrons and holes in the semiconductor device under illumination and their sub- sequent collection at opposite electrodes. In organic semiconductors, both charge separation and charge mobility are limited to some extent. Following the encouraging breakthrough observation of reversible, metastable, and ul- trafast photo-induced electron transfer from donor-type conjugated polymers to acceptor-type fullerene molecules, a novel photovoltaic device concept — in a sense similar to the first steps of natural photosynthesis ~ based on the structural ordering of an interpenetrating network (by mixing the donor— acceptor composite to a bulk heterojunction blend with increased effective 1 G.A. Chamberlain: Solar Cells 8, 47 (1983) 2 J. Simon, J.-J. Andre: Molecular Semiconductors (Springer, Berlin, 1985). 3 J. Kanicki: in Handbook of Conducting Polymers, Vol. 1, ed. by T.A. Skotheimn (Marcel Dekker, New York, 1985) p. 543.VI Preface interface area) gives rise to power conversion efficiencies up to 2.5% and a quantum yield approaching unity.4>:6 Besides the efficiency criterion, long-term stability is another crucial prob- lem common to all possible applications of semiconducting polymers. To date, light-emitting diodes based on conjugated polymer materials have generally been provided with industrial encapsulation techniques that allow for a shelf lifetime of several years as well as an operational lifetime of some tens of thou- sands of hours. In the case of a photovoltaic device or even a single device component, the trade-off between operational lifetime and efficiency versus cost will determine the market penetration capability of these types of solar cells. The purpose of the present volume is to provide a snapshot of the state of the art in fundamental organic/plastic solar cell research with particular emphasis on educational aspects. The editors would like to express their gratitude to all authors for the large amount of time and effort that went into preparing the broad spectrum of contributions printed hereafter. Special thanks are due to Claus Ascheron, Angela Lahee, Petra Treiber, and Stephen Lyle from Springer-Verlag, Hei- delberg, for continuous commitment, efficient support, and skillful technical assistance. Erlangen, Oldenburg, Linz, Christoph J. Brabec January 2003 Vladimir Dyakonov Jiirgen Parisi ~ Niyazi Serdar Saricifici 4 N.S, Sariciftci, L. Smilowitz, A.J. Heeger, and F. Wudl, Science 258, 1474 (1992). 5 G. Yu, J. Gao, J.C. Hummelen, F. Wudl, A.J. Heeger: Science 270, 1789 (1995). 6 N.S. Sariciftei, A.J. Heeger: in Handbook of Organic Conducting Molecules and Polymers, Vol. 1, ed. by H.S. Nalwa (Wiley, New York, 1996) p. 414; $.B. Shaheen, C.J. Brabec, N.S. Sariciftci, F. Padinger, T. Fromberz, J.C. Hummelen: Appl Phys. Lett. 78, 841 (2001); C.J. Brabec, N.S. Sariciftei, J.C. Hummelen: Adv Funct. Mater. 11, 15 (2001)