Charge carrier concentration and temperature dependent recombination in polymer-fullerene solar cells

We performed temperature dependent transient photovoltage and photocurrent measurements on poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C(61) butyric acid methyl ester bulk heterojuction solar cells. We found a strongly charge carrier concentration and temperature dependent Langevin recombination prefactor. The observed recombination mechanism is discussed in terms of bimolecular recombination. The experimental results were compared with charge carrier extraction by linearly increasing voltage measurements done on the same blend system. We explain the charge carrier dynamics, following an apparent order larger than two, by dynamic trapping of charges in the tail states of the Gaussian density of states.