This symposium aims to bring together researchers working on quantifying nanoscale carrier transport processes in excitonic solar cell devices. Excitonic solar cells, including allorganic, hybrid organic-inorganic and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), offer strong potential for inexpensive and large-area solar energy conversion. Broader Impact:
The symposium strongly encourages the participation of underrepresented groups, including Hispanics, Native Americans, and women, through appropriate travel and registration support. Specific efforts to encourage their participation include: distribution of information encouraging women/ethic minorities, researchers from undergraduate educational institutions along with abstract acceptance.
The relevance of organic photovoltaics has steadily increased in consumer applications with aesthetics, mechanical flexibility, and buzz value. Broader commercial adaptation, however, remains elusive in the face of increased competition from inorganic counterparts. The enduring challenges of stability and efficiency will ultimately determine the future application of organic photovoltaics and its broader societal impact. Following are the important outcomes of this conference: Announcement of world record efficient organic solar cell (10% efficient cell by Mitsubishi chemical) Highest reported efficiencies in various device architectures Tutorial session on Organic Photovoltaics: Current Challenges and Opportunities All invited session on: Organic Photovoltaics: Materials Challenges All invited session on: Morphology II Financial support to several graduate/undergraduate researchers and invited speakers Symposium Program The five-day symposium started with a day-long joint tutorial (with Symposium H) on Organic Photovoltaics: Current Challenges and Opportunities. Speakers include Venkat Bommisetty (overview), Jianhui Hou, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Materials design for high-efficiency organic photovoltaics), Selina Olthof, Princeton (Interfaces in OPV), Carsten Deibel, Würzburg, (Multi-scale modeling) Sean Shaheen, Denver (Novel Device Designs). The tutorial covers fundamental and device aspects of organic photovoltaics, including materials design principles, interfaces, multi-scale modeling, and novel device designs. This tutorial began with a general overview of organic photovoltaics. The materials session focused on: how to change the bandgap; the acceptor strength; how to improve the stability, charge mobility; controlling the morphology, etc., with relevant examples from highly performing OPV materials. The interfaces session detailed issues such as dipole formation, alignment/bending of energy levels, challenges in predicting the energetic alignment and charge transport through OPV devices and explaining experimental methods to investigate these issues. The multi-scale modeling session described physical models such as charge transport and recombination and simulation principles. Methods of and challenges to implementing physical models in Monte Carlo and macroscopic device simulations were explained. The device designs session focused on methods to enhance the energy conversion efficiency of various device structures, optimizing process conditions, and novel device architectures.
