Experimental determination of the rate law for charge carrier decay in a polythiophene: Fullerene solar cell

We use transient photovoltage and differential charging experiments, complemented by transient absorption data, to determine charge carrier lifetimes and densities in a poly(3-hexylthiophene): methanofullerene solar cell at V(oc) as a function of white light-bias intensity. For a typical device, the charge carrier decay dynamics are observed to exhibit an approximately third order dependence on charge density (dn/dt proportional to n(3)). (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.