Quenching donor-acceptor interface, excitons

This exciton diffuses to the donor/acceptor interface via an energy-transfer mechanism (i.e., no net transport of mass or charge occurs). (3) Charge-transfer quenching of the exciton at the D/A interface produces a charge- transfer (CT) state, in the form of a coulombically interacting donor/acceptor complex (D A ). The nomenclature used to describe this species has been relatively imprecise, and has... 

At the donor/acceptor interface (step III in Figure 5), exciton D is quenched via electron transfer to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level of the acceptor molecule (A°). On the contrary, exciton A is quenched via hole transfer to the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of the donor molecule (D ). Both pathways result in the formation of the same charge separated state D+ A . Positive and negative charges in this ion pair are bond by Coulomb attraction forces and also denoted as geminate polaron pair. This pair can dissociate in the electric field induced by the potential jump at the heterojunction and/or by the difference in the electrode work functions. At the same time, the energy difference... 

Fig. 4 Schematic illustration of the processes leading to photocurrent generation in organic solar cells, (a) Photon absorption in Step 1 leads to excitons that may diffuse in Step 2 to the donor/ acceptor (D/A) interface. Quenching of the exciton at the D/A interface in Step 3 leads to formation of the charge-transfer (CT) state. Note that processes analogous to Steps 1-3 may also occur in the acceptor material, (b) Charge separation in Step 4 leads to free polarons that are transported through the organic layers and collected at the electrodes in Steps 5 and 6, respectively, (c) The equilibria involved in Steps 1-4- strongly influence device efficiency...

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