9. Device Physics in a Nutshell

This chapter summarizes the main effects and parameters influencing the performance of organic solar cells in very brief statements. On the one hand, this is done by comparing J-V data of a fictitious device X with its reference device. On the other hand, the influence of changes in specific properties of the device is visualized by a series of calculated J-V curves. These two approaches contain a high risk for an oversimplification. For this reason, the given references pointing back to the main chapters of this book should be consulted for a detailed understanding. However, used in the right way, this chapter offers a very compressed set of guidelines on how to interpret J-V curves of organic solar cells from a drift-diffusion point of view. Simple experimental methods are suggested to distinguish several reasons for detrimental device properties such as a low \(V_{\mathrm{{oc}}}\), low FFs from S-shapes, and low photocurrents. The chapter closes with concluding thoughts about the applicability of drift-diffusion simulations to solar cells based on disordered organic thin films.