High efficiency organic multilayer photodetectors based on singlet exciton fission

Abstract

We employ an exciton fission process that converts one singlet exciton into two triplet excitons to increase the quantum efficiency of an organic multilayer photodetector beyond 100%. The photodetector incorporates ultrathin alternating donor-acceptor layers of pentacene and C60, respectively. By comparing the quantum efficiency after separate pentacene and C60 photoexcitation we find that singlet exciton fission in pentacene enhances the quantum efficiency by (45±7)%. In quantitative agreement with this result, we also observe that the photocurrent generated from pentacene excitons is decreased by (2.7±0.2)% under an applied magnetic field of H=0.4 T, while the C60 photocurrent is relatively unchanged.