Noise-induced quantum coherence drives photo-carrier generation dynamics at polymeric semiconductor heterojunctions

Nature Communications

Volumn 5, Issue , 2014, Pages

  Bittner, Eric R ^a,b   Silva, Carlos ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FULERENE; POLYMER; UNCLASSIFIED DRUG;

ELECTRON; ENERGETICS; FULLERENE; POLYMER; QUANTUM MECHANICS; SUPERCONDUCTIVITY; TIMESCALE;

ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY; ARTICLE; DIELECTRIC CONSTANT; DYNAMICS; ENERGY; NOISE; OSCILLATION; OSCILLATOR; PHASE TRANSITION; PHONON; POLYMERIZATION; SEMICONDUCTOR; SPECTROMETRY; UNCERTAINTY;

EID: 84955245470     PISSN: None     EISSN: 20411723     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4119     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. He, Z. et al. Enhanced power-conversion efficiency in polymer solar cells using an inverted device structure. Nat. Photon. 6, 591-595 (2012).
2. Sariciftci, N. & Heeger, A. Reversible, metastable, ultrafast photoinduced electron-transfer from semiconducting polymers to buckminsterfullerene and in the corresponding donor-acceptor heterojunctions. Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 8, 237-274 (1994).
3. Banerji, N., Cowan, S., Leclerc, M., Vauthey, E. & Heeger, A. J. Exciton formation, relaxation, and decay in PCDTBT. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 17459-17470 (2010).
4. 70BM. Phys. Rev. B 81, 125210 (2010).
5. Sheng, C.-X., Basel, T., Pandit, B. & Vardeny, Z. V. Photoexcitation dynamics in polythiophene/fullerene blends for photovoltaic applications. Org. Electron. 13, 1031-1037 (2012).
6. Jailaubekov, A. E. et al. Hot charge-transfer excitons set the time limit for charge separation at donor/acceptor interfaces in organic photovoltaics. Nat. Mater. 12, 66-73 (2013).
7. Grancini, G. et al. Hot exciton dissociation in polymer solar cells. Nat. Mater. 12, 29-33 (2013).
8. Kaake, L. G., Moses, D. & Heeger, A. J. Coherence and uncertainty in nanostructured organic photovoltaics. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 4, 2264-2268 (2013).
9. Mukamel, S. Comment on 'coherence and uncertainty in nanostructured organic photovoltaics'. J. Phys. Chem. A 117, 10563-10564 (2013).
10. Banerji, N. Sub-picosecond delocalization in the excited state of conjugated homopolymers and donor-acceptor copolymers. J. Mater. Chem. C 1, 3052 (2013).
11. Gélinas, S. et al. Coherent charge separation in organic semiconductor photovoltaic diodes. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1246249 (2013).
12. Barbara, P., Meyer, T. & Ratner, M. Contemporary issues in electron transfer research. J. Phys. Chem. 100, 13148-13168 (1996).
13. Noriega, R. et al. A general relationship between disorder, aggregation and charge transport in conjugated polymers. Nat. Mater. 12, 1038-1044 (2013).
14. Gao, Y. et al. Understanding morphology-dependent polymer aggregation properties and photocurrent generation in polythiophene/fullerene solar cells of variable compositions. J. Phys. Chem. C 114, 15121-15128 (2010).
15. Zimmerman, J. D. et al. Independent control of bulk and interfacial morphologies of small molecular weight organic heterojunction solar cells. Nano Lett. 12, 4366-4371 (2012).
16. Pensack, R. D., Guo, C., Vakhshouri, K., Gomez, E. D. & Asbury, J. B. Influence of acceptor structure on barriers to charge separation in organic photovoltaic materials. J. Phys. Chem. C 116, 4824-4831 (2012).
17. Tamura, H. & Burghardt, I. Ultrafast charge separation in organic photovoltaics enhanced by charge delocalization and vibronically hot exciton dissociation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 16364-16367 (2013).
18. Bakulin, A. A. et al. The role of driving energy and delocalized states for charge separation in organic semiconductors. Science 335, 1340-1344 (2012).
19. Karabunarliev, S. & Bittner, E. R. Dissipative dynamics of spin-dependent electron-hole capture in conjugated polymers. J. Chem. Phys. 119, 3988-3995 (2003).
20. Karabunarliev, S. & Bittner, E. R. Polaron-excitons and electron-vibrational band shapes in conjugated polymers. J. Chem. Phys. 118, 4291-4296 (2003).
21. Karabunarliev, S. & Bittner, E. R. Electroluminescence yield in donor-acceptor copolymers and diblock polymers: a comparative theoretical study. J. Phys. Chem. B 108, 10219-10225 (2004).
22. Karabunarliev, S. & Bittner, E. R. Spin-dependent electron-hole capture kinetics in luminescent conjugated polymers. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 057402 (2003).
23. Dorfman, K. E., Voronine, D. V., Mukamel, S. & Scully, M. O. Photosynthetic reaction center as a quantum heat engine. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 110, 2746-2751 (2013).
24. Chin, A. W. et al. The role of non-equilibrium vibrational structures in electronic coherence and recoherence in pigment-protein complexes. Nat. Phys. 9, 113-118 (2013).
25. Engel, G. S. et al. Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems. Nature 446, 782-786 (2007).
26. Scully, M. O. Quantum photocell: using quantum coherence to reduce radiative recombination and increase efficiency. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 207701 (2010).
27. Scully, M. O., Chapin, K. R., Dorfman, K. E., Kim, M. B. & Svidzinsky, A. Quantum heat engine power can be increased by noise-induced coherence. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 108, 15097-15100 (2011).
28. Li, J. et al. Motional averaging in a superconducting qubit. Nat. Commun. 4, 1420 (2013).
29. Bittner, E. R., Karabunarliev, S. & Ye, A. Photoconductivity and current producing states in molecular semiconductors. J. Chem. Phys. 122, 034707 (2005).
30. Peumans, P., Uchida, S. & Forrest, S. R. Efficient bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells using small-molecular-weight organic thin films. Nature 425, 158-162 (2003).
31. Bittner, E. R. & Karabunarliev, S. Energy relaxation dynamics and universal scaling laws in organic light-emitting diodes. Int. J. Quantum. Chem. 95, 521-531 (2003).
32. Bittner, E. R., Ramon, J. G. S. & Karabunarliev, S. Exciton dissociation dynamics in model donor-acceptor polymer heterojunctions. I. energetics and spectra. J. Chem. Phys. 122, 214719-214719 (2005).
33. Pereverzev, A. & Bittner, E. R. Time-convolutionless master equation for mesoscopic electron-phonon systems. J. Chem. Phys. 125, 104906 (2006).
34. Tamura, H., Bittner, E. R. & Burghardt, I. Exciton dissociation at donoracceptor polymer heterojunctions: quantum nonadiabatic dynamics and effective-mode analysis. J. Chem. Phys. 126, 021103 (2007).
35. Tamura, H., Ramon, J. G. S., Bittner, E. R. & Burghardt, I. Phonon-driven ultrafast exciton dissociation at donor-acceptor polymer heterojunctions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 107402 (2008).
36. Troisi, A. How quasi-free holes and electrons are generated in organic photovoltaic interfaces. Faraday Discuss 163, 377-392 (2013).
37. Yang, X., Dykstra, T. E. & Scholes, G. D. Photon-echo studies of collective absorption and dynamic localization of excitation in conjugated polymers and oligomers. Phys. Rev. B 71, 045203 (2005).
38. Tamura, H., Bittner, E. R. & Burghardt, I. Quantum nonadiabatic dynamics of exciton dissociation and recombination at in polymer heterojunctions. J. Chem. Phys. 126, 021103 (2007).
39. Grover, M. K. & Silbey, R. Exciton-phonon interactions in molecular crystals. J. Chem. Phys. 52, 2099-2108 (1970).
40. Fischer, S. & Rice, S. A. Frenkel excitons in a vibrating molecular crystal. J. Chem. Phys. 52, 2089-2098 (1970).