QuESt · Quantum Enhanced Organic Photovoltaics by Strong Coupling of IR Vibrations to an Optical Cavity
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-09-01 → 2022-12-11
- EU contribution
- €262,269
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Quantum Enhanced Organic Photovoltaics by Strong Coupling of IR Vibrations to an Optical Cavity
The central aim of QuESt is to understand how the efficiency of materials used in organic photovoltaics (OPV) that convert sunlight into free charges can be enhanced by the emerging approach of modifying material properties by strong light-matter coupling. Under strong light-matter coupling, which can be achieved for example by placing molecules in an optical cavity which is essentially a pair of mirrors that trap light within them, new hybrid (part-molecule part-light) states called polaritons are formed, which behave very differently than its constituent parts. Organic photovoltaics that are based on organic molecules, offer an attractive alternative to conventional solar cells due to their advantages such as optical tunability, lightweight, and design flexibility. However, their overall efficiencies in converting sunlight into free charges (and hence electricity) is still limited. In recent years, the potential to modify the physical properties of materials and molecules by making it interact with an optical cavity mode in the strong coupling regime has been recognized and experimentally demonstrated. In QuEst we aim to provide guidelines on how strongly coupling the vibrational modes of materials used in OPVs with the modes of an optical cavity can modify the rate at which the material converts light into free charges. We aim to develop physical models to predict i) the energy structure, for example, what are the new energies at which hybrid states absorb and emit light, ii) the dynamics and iii) the optical response (spectra), of strongly coupled systems, and benchmark these with ultrafast spectroscopy experiments. The success of this action will not only benefit the scientific community working on OPVs but importantly will advance our knowledge on the general and relatively new field of modifying the properties of molecular systems by strong light-matter coupling.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
In the quest for solar cell technologies, organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are playing a leading role as a potentially cost-effective and clean solution. Thus, much research has been devoted into increasing power conversion efficiencies (PCE), currently ~10% by optimising material properties at the different steps involved in the conversion of light into charge. There is evidence that charge delocalization and hot charge transfer (CT) states facilitate charge separation at the electron donor/acceptor interface. State-of-the-art OPVs already exhibit very high (>90%) internal quantum efficiencies (IQE). However, PCE relies not only on high IQE but also on minimizing energy loses (e.g. exciton relaxation) and avoiding charge recombination. A possible strategy to increase PCE is to find ways to optimise charge separation that allow simultaneously for high quantum efficiencies and architectures with longer exciton diffusion lengths or lower charge recombination rates. In QuESt we will investigate how to enhance OPV functionality by the emerging approach of modifying material properties through the hybridization of matter and photon states under strong light matter coupling. In particular, the aim of this project is to modify charge separation and eventually PCE in OPVs by engineering strong coupling between IR molecular vibrations and an optical cavity mode. We will develop a theoretical framework to describe the energy structure and charge dynamics in OPVs under strong vibrational coupling that will be benchmarked with non-linear spectroscopy experiments.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- SCUOLA INTERNAZIONALE SUPERIORE DI STUDI AVANZATI DI TRIESTE · TriesteCoordinatorItaly
- TRUSTEES OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · Princeton, NjUnited States
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union