Optical Helicity-Manipulated Photocurrents and Photovoltages in Organic Solar Cells

Wei, Mengmeng; Hao, Xiaotao; Saxena, Avadh Behari; Qin, Wei; Xie, Shijie

doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b03537

Optical Helicity-Manipulated Photocurrents and Photovoltages in Organic Solar Cells

Journal Article · Tue May 29 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b03537· OSTI ID:1441335

Wei, Mengmeng ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[1]; Xie, Shijie ^[1]

Shandong Univ., Jinan (China). State Key Lab. of Crystal Materials and School of Physics
Shandong Univ., Jinan (China). State Key Lab. of Crystal Materials and School of Physics; Univ. of Melbourne (Australia). ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science and School of Chemistry
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

The performance of an organic functional device can be effectively improved through external field manipulation. In this study, we experimentally demonstrate the optical polarization manipulation of the photocurrent or photovoltage in organic solar cells. Through switching the incident light from a linearly polarized light to a circularly polarized one, we find a pronounced change in the photocurrent, which is not observable in normal inorganic cells. There are two competing hypotheses for the primary process underlying the circular polarization-dependent phenomena in organic materials, one involving the inverse Faraday effect (IFE) and the other a direct photon spin–electron spin interaction. By way of ingenious device design and external magnetic field-induced stimuli, it is expected that the organic IFE can be a powerful experimental tool in revealing and elucidating excited-state processes occurring in organic spintronic and optoelectronic devices. Therefore, we believe that our results will potentially lead to the development of new multifunctional organic devices with integrated electronic, optical, and magnetic properties for energy conversion, optical communication, and sensing technologies.