The present volume describes and explains the fundamentals of organic/plastic solar cells in a manner accessible to both researchers and students. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the operational principles underlying several types of solar cells that have absorber layers based on polymer materials and small molecules. It addresses competing approaches, such as polymer solar cells and dye-sensitized cells, while considering the thermodynamic principles within the context of these schemes. The monograph also analyzes in detail the charge-transfer processes in the bulk-heterojunction devices corresponding to the relevant mechanism of carrier generation. Emphasized throughout is the concept of interpenetrating polymer-fullerene networks, due to their high potential for improving power efficiency.

Organic photovoltaics will play a key role in future solar energy systems Provides an up-to-date and comprehensive account of these materials and corresponding devices Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Christoph J. Brabec is director of the polymer photovoltaics programme at Konarka Technologies. After completing his Ph.D. in 1995, he joined the group of Prof Alan Heeger at the University of Santa Barbara, USA, for a sabbatical in 1996, and continued to work on the opto-electronic properties of organic semiconductors as assistant professor at the University of Linz with Prof. Serdar Sariciftci. In 1998, he became senior scientist of the Christian Doppler Laboratory on organic solar cells, which he left in 2001 to join Siemens Corporate Technology as project leader for organic semiconductor devices. He finished his habilitation in physical chemistry at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz in 2003, and is author and co-author of more than 100 papers and has filed over 30 patents. Vladimir Dyakonov is full professor of experimental physics at the University of Würzburg, Germany, and scientific director of the Bavarian Centre of Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern) in Würzburg. He obtained his diploma degree in physics from the University of Saint Petersburg, his Ph.D. from the A. F. Ioffe-Institute in Russia and his habilitation degree from the University of Oldenburg, Germany in 1986, 1996 and 2001, respectively. From 1996 to 1998, he worked as post-doctoral fellow at the universities of Antwerp, Belgium, and Linz, Austria.Ullrich Scherf is full professor for Macromolecular Chemistry at Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany. He studied chemistry at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1988 and subsequently spent one year at the Institute for Animal Physiology of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. He joined the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz in 1990 and completed his habilitation in 1996 on polyarylene-type ladder polymers. He followed a call to the University of Potsdam, Germany, onto a professorship for polymer chemistry. He has published over 350 refereed papers and received the Meyer-Struckmann Research Award in 1998.

Inhalt
1 Photoinduced Charge Transfer in Bulk Heterojunction Composites.- 2 Optical and Spectroscopic Properties of Conjugated Polymers.- 3 Transport Properties of Conjugated Polymers.- 4 Quantum Solar Energy Conversion and Application to Organic Solar Cells.- 5 Semiconductor Aspects of Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells.- 6 Organic Photodiodes: From Diodes to Blends.- 7 Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.