Abstract
To improve the efficiency of organic photovoltaic devices the inclusion of semiconducting nanoparticles such as PbS has been used to enhance near-infrared absorption. Additionally the use of interdigitated heterojunctions has been explored as a means of improving charge extraction. In this paper we provide a two-dimensional model taking into account these approaches with the aim of predicting an optimized device geometry to maximize the efficiency. The steady-state exciton population has been calculated in each of the active regions taking into account the full optical response based on using a finite difference approach to obtain approximate numerical solutions to the 2D exciton diffusion equation. On the basis of this we calculate the contribution of each active material to the device short circuit current and power conversion efficiency. We show that optimized structures can lead to power conversions efficiencies of 50% compared to a maximum of 17% for planar heterojunction devices. To achieve this the interdigitated region thickness should be 800 nm with PbS and C60 widths of 60 and 20 nm, respectively. Even modest nanopatterning using much thinner active regions provides improvements in efficiency and may be approached using a variety of methods including nanoimprinting lithography, nanotemplating, or the incorporation of presynthesized nanorod structures.