Origin of Photocurrent and Voltage Losses in Organic Solar Cells

Abstract Organic solar cells (OSCs) have recently achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of over 16%. However, there still exist large losses in photocurrent and/or voltage in state‐of‐the‐art OSCs, making the PCEs still far below those of inorganic counterparts. Here, the factors and electronic processes for photocurrent and voltage losses are identified and discussed in the framework of device physics and photophysics. To simultaneously obtain both high photocurrent density and low voltage loss toward 20% PCEs, it is crucial to suppress the non‐radiative (NR) recombination of the lowest charge‐transfer (CT) state at the donor–acceptor interface. In principle, theoretical simulations can provide molecular insight into the origin of these losses, which is essential to guide material design. In particular, the authors highlight the importance of the local interface morphologies and the vibronic couplings on suppressing the NR decay of the lowest CT state according to recent theoretical studies.