The subthreshold (or sub-bandgap) turn-on for electroluminescence is one of the most discussed, but often misinterpreted, phenomena for solution-processed quantum-dot light-emitting diodes. Here, multiple techniques are applied to show that the phenomenon can be readily explained using the fundamental rules of carrier injection and transport. Evident from temperature dependent photovoltage measurements, it is found that the energy up-conversion originating from the decay of charge transfer excitons is not responsible for the subthreshold turn-on. Further analysis using electroabsorption reveals that the turn-on voltage of electroluminescence consistently correlates with the flat-band voltage of the emission layer. Under such subthreshold bias, although the device current is still limited by the depleted hole-transporting layer, field-assisted carrier injection starts to provide enough electrons and holes for detectable radiative recombination, thereby enabling distinct subthreshold turn-on.

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For organic solar cells (OSCs), the charge generation mechanism and the recombination loss are heavily linked with charge transfer states (CTS). Measuring the energy of CTS (E CT) by the most widely used technique, however, has become challenging for the non-fullerene-based OSCs with a small driving force, resulting in difficulty in the understanding of OSC physics. Herein, we present a study of the PM6:Y6 bulk heterojunction. It is demonstrated that electro-absorption can not only reveal the dipolar nature of Y6 but also resolve the morphology-dependent absorption signal of CTS in the sub-bandgap region. The device with the optimum blending weight ratio shows an E CT of 1.27 eV, which is confirmed by independent measurements. Because of the charge transfer characteristics of Y6, the charge generation at PM6:Y6 interfaces occurs efficiently under a small but non-negligible driving force of 0.14 eV, and the total recombination loss is as low as 0.43 eV.

Interfacial bonding interaction between the TIPD and CH3NH3PbI3.

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