Correlation of Heterojunction Luminescence Quenching and Photocurrent in Polymer-Blend Photovoltaic Diodes

Charge generation in organic solar cells proceeds via photogeneration of excitons in the bulk that form geminate electron-hole pairs at the heterojunction formed between electron donor and acceptors. It is shown that an externally applied electric field increases the number of free charges formed from the geminate pair, and quenches the luminescence from the relaxed exciplex with one-to-one correspondence.