The need to develop inexpensive renewable energy sources stimulates scientific research for efficient, low-cost photovoltaic devices.1 The organic, polymer-based photovoltaic elements have introduced at least the potential of obtaining cheap and easy methods to produce energy from light.2 The possibility of chemically manipulating the material properties of polymers (plastics) combined with a variety of easy and cheap processing techniques has made polymer-based materials present in almost every aspect of modern society.3 Organic semiconductors have several advantages: (a) lowcost synthesis, and (b) easy manufacture of thin film devices by vacuum evaporation/sublimation or solution cast or printing technologies. Furthermore, organic semiconductor thin films may show high absorption coefficients4 exceeding 105 cm-1, which makes them good chromophores for optoelectronic applications. The electronic band gap of organic semiconductors can be engineered by chemical synthesis for simple color changing of light emitting diodes (LEDs).5 Charge carrier mobilities as high as 10 cm2/V‚s6 made them competitive with amorphous silicon.7 This review is organized as follows. In the first part, we will give a general introduction to the materials, production techniques, working principles, critical parameters, and stability of the organic solar cells. In the second part, we will focus on conjugated polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells, mainly on polyphenylenevinylene (PPV) derivatives/(1-(3-methoxycarbonyl) propyl-1-phenyl[6,6]C61) (PCBM) fullerene derivatives and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/PCBM systems. In the third part, we will discuss the alternative approaches such as polymer/polymer solar cells and organic/inorganic hybrid solar cells. In the fourth part, we will suggest possible routes for further improvements and finish with some conclusions. The different papers mentioned in the text have been chosen for didactical purposes and cannot reflect the chronology of the research field nor have a claim of completeness. The further interested reader is referred to the vast amount of quality papers published in this field during the past decade.

Conjugated polymer-based organic solar cells

Electron and ambipolar transport in organic field-effect transistors.

White organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) have advanced over the last twelve years to the extent that these devices are now being considered as efficient solid-state lighting sources. Initially, WOLEDs were targeted towards display applications for use primarily as liquid-crystal display backlights. Now, their power efficiencies have surpassed those of incandescent sources due to improvements in device architectures, synthesis of novel materials, and the incorporation of electrophosphorescent emitters. This review discusses the advantages and disadvantages of several WOLED architectures in terms of efficiency and color quality. Hindrances to their widespread acceptance as solid-state lighting sources are also noted.

White Organic Light‐Emitting Devices for Solid‐State Lighting

Recently, a lot of effort has been focused on improving the performance and exploring the electric properties of graphene. This article presents a summary of chemical doping of graphene aimed at tuning the electronic properties of graphene. p-Type and n-type doping of graphene achieved through surface transfer doping or substitutional doping and their applications based on doping are reviewed. Chemical doping for band gap tuning in graphene is also presented. It will be beneficial to designing high performance electronic devices based on chemically doped graphene.

Chemical doping of graphene

Most present-day semiconductor devices use inorganic crystalline materials, with single-crystalline silicon dominating other materials like GaAs by about a factor of 1000. Despite the advantages of single-crystalline inorganic semiconductors like high room-temperature mobility (up to 1000 cm2/(V s)) and high stability, these materials are less suitable for low-cost and large-area applications. Additionally, silicon is an indirect semiconductor and therefore is not well suited for optoelectronic applications like light-emitting diodes. Solar cells from silicon are expensive and require a large amount of energy for their fabrication, leading to a long energy payback time. As an alternative, organic semiconductors have recently gained much attention (for review articles, see refs 1 -3 (OLEDs), ref 4 (organic electronics in general), and refs 5 and 6 (organic solar cells)). Originally, much of the research concentrated on single crystals, which can have mobilities of a few cm2/(V s) at room temperature and even much higher values at low temperature, as shown in the pioneering work of Karl et al.7 However, for practical applications, thinfilm organic semiconductors with disordered morphology, such as evaporated small-molecule compounds or polymers processed from solution, are prevailing. Organic semiconductors are already broadly applied as photoconductors for copiers and laser printers. * Corresponding author. E-mail: leo@iapp.de. Web address: www.iapp.de. 1233 Chem. Rev. 2007, 107, 1233−1271

Highly efficient organic devices based on electrically doped transport layers.

We show that doping of the transport layers can strikingly improve the properties of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). The electroluminescence onset voltage of diodes containing an vanadyl–phthalocyanine (VOPc) hole transport layer intentionally doped with tetrafluorotetracyano-quinodimethan (F4-TCNQ) is reduced by up to an order of magnitude compared to OLED with undoped VOPc. The improved properties of our devices can be explained by the improved conductivity and better injection for a doped transport layer.

Low voltage organic light emitting diodes featuring doped phthalocyanine as hole transport material

We have realized a small-molecule organic light-emitting diode where the intrinsic emitter layer is sandwiched by n- and p-doped transport layers with appropriate blocking layers. The diodes based on this pin concept have exponential forward characteristics up to comparatively high current densities. The diodes reach high brightness at very low operating voltage: for instance, 1000 cd/m2 at a voltage of 2.9 V. Despite the highly doped transport layers, the devices reach very high efficiency for the given emitter system up to high brightness.

Low-voltage organic electroluminescent devices using pin structures

We demonstrate the use of a p-doped amorphous starburst amine, 4, 4′, 4″-tris(N, N-diphenyl- amino)triphenylamine (TDATA), doped with a very strong acceptor, tetrafluoro- tetracyano-quinodimethane by controlled coevaporation as an excellent hole injection material for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Multilayered OLEDs consisting of double hole transport layers of p-doped TDATA and triphenyl-diamine, and an emitting layer of pure 8-tris-hydroxyquinoline aluminum exhibit a very low operating voltage (3.4 V) for obtaining 100 cd/m2 even for a comparatively large (110 nm) total hole transport layer thickness.

Very-low-operating-voltage organic light-emitting diodes using a p-doped amorphous hole injection layer

Interface electronic structure of organic semiconductors with controlled doping levels

We demonstrate enhanced hole injection and lowered driving voltage in vacuum-deposited organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a hole-transport layer using the starburst amine 4,4′,4″-tris(N,N-diphenyl-amino)triphenylamine (TDATA) p-doped with a very strong acceptor, tetrafluoro-tetracyano-quinodimethane (F4-TCNQ) by controlled coevaporation. The doping leads to high conductivity of doped TDATA layers and a high density of equilibrium charge carriers, which facilitates hole injection and transport. Moreover, multilayer OLEDs consisting of double hole-transport layers of thick p-doped TDATA and a thin triphenyl-diamine (TPD) interlayer exhibit very low operating voltages.

Jan Blochwitz

Papers

Low voltage organic light emitting diodes featuring doped phthalocyanine as hole transport material

Low-voltage organic electroluminescent devices using pin structures

Very-low-operating-voltage organic light-emitting diodes using a p-doped amorphous hole injection layer

Interface electronic structure of organic semiconductors with controlled doping levels

Enhanced Hole Injection into Amorphous Hole-Transport Layers of Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Using Controlled p-Type Doping